Progressive Muscle Relaxation Helps A Lot!!

[jangle]

Ok, it's not a cure, but one component that has reduced my symptoms (lightheadedness and headache) is progressive muscle relaxation. I tried to speculate on why this is, going through some journal articles, the most I can come up with is that PMR (progressive muscle relaxation) activates the parasympathetic nervous system which might balance out my autonomic nervous system.

Anyways I notice that the amount of my improvement corresponds to the quality of the relaxation exercise. Usually a good relaxation cycle will take between 15-30 minutes of time. For those unfamiliar with PMR, it involves tensing each muscle group individually in your body and releasing the tension slowly. So for example one might tense their right foot for 10 seconds and then release the tension to a count of 15 seconds.

Then they will move to their right calve muscle then to their right thigh, then left foot, left calve, left thigh, hands, arms, buttocks, back, shoulders, and neck.

The relaxation is maximized by prolonging the release of the muscle group. Really aim to take between 10-15 seconds releasing the tension in the muscle.

After each muscle has been relaxed, the mind becomes more amiable to meditation and imagery based relaxation. After PMR I go on to try meditation which increases the relaxation response.

Aftwerwards I can definitely notice a reduction in pain and lightheadedness symptoms. In addition it seems to lower my standing HR by about 5-7 bpm.

Anyways, hope this technique might be useful for others.

[anaphylaxing]

Thanks! I'll try it!

Ana

[Katybug]

jangle,

I have used this as part of a meditation and it does help. I also wonder if part of the mechanism is that tensing and relaxing the muscles helps to keep the circulation distributed throughout your body and therefore helps normalize BP and HR. Have no proof...just speculating.

[abnel]

Just on that point Katybug, I've observed that I have better standing time doing Tai Chi than I do if I'm just standing and shuffling about the house. Like Progressive Muscle Relaxation, it also focuses on the contracting and relaxing of muscles but it works the entire body all at the same time. I've found that on a bad day, if I do my Tai Chi in the morning I sometimes feel better, even significantly better, both during and after doing it. It seems to normalise my blood pressure and even has occasionally lowered my heart rate in a way that normal exercise can't do. There are some studies that show that patients with (I think) Congestive Heart Failure were able to increase their capacity to walk when they practised Tai Chi over a 3-4 week period compared with the same type of patient group who didn't undertake Tai Chi practice. I think there's a lot more to meditation and Tai Chi that medical science can learn from.

[Katybug]

I haven't tried Tai Chi but have interest. I have been trying to find an upright exercise I think I can do besides just walking which gets boring. Tai Chi might just be a good option I hadn't thought of! And, yes, I agree that medical science is behind the times on using these methods to treat and also to look at research avenues. Thanks for the great thought!

[Annaliese]

Im glad you brought this up- i have a story to tell which will make me sound a bit like ive taken a drug overdose but here goes anyway. I think ive got low flow pots because my arms and legs are always freezing. Anyway, one night whilst i was watching tv i decided to try to super relax my muscles in my legs and try to imagine blood flowing into my feet. After about half an hour of doing this, all of a sudden i felt a warm (actually hot) flush into my feet! It was sort of unpleasant actually. I felt my feet and sure enough they were warm. Ive been practising it ever since. Now sometimes when i turn the tv on the flush to my feet happend on its own, sort of like a pavlovs's dog reaction i guess. Very weird dont you think?

[abnel]

Annaliese, it sounds almost like you are doing what Qi Gong practitioners have been doing for centuries, but instead of imagining the blood flowing to the feet, they instead imagine/visualise "Qi" energy flowing from the Crown chakra all the way down through the body to the feet and then out of the body. I have always had cold extremities and when I used to practise Qi Gong my feet and hands always warmed up just like you describe. I also felt the healthiest I ever have been in my life, but now with POTS I seem to have lost the mental discipline ability that I used to have. Plus a lot of Qi Gong is done standing still and that just makes me feel worse these days! Probably the only type of meditation I can do anymore is sitting meditation.

[Maiysa]

This is great information. Will try it. I do healing yoga when I can...(I can it yoga for whimps) and it's so helpful, but am always looking for different solutions for pain. Thank you very much for posting. We actually used to do this in my college theatre days for a relaxing technique. If I didn't do it, I would have been a mess, never thought to try it in this situation. Great idea!!!!

[MomtoGiuliana]

I know there are practitioners that teach biofeedback to people with Raynauld's syndrome to help improve blood flow. There is certainly something to this!

[yogini]

I'm all for "alternative" things this that help - i think muscle relaxation improves blood low a nd calms body/mind, both of which are great for POTS.