History Of Pots For Those Who Might Be Interested.

[jangle]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1277260/pdf/brheartj00094-0008.pdf

This is a good article that I believe describes POTS all the way back to the civil war. A lot of the symptoms these soldiers were describing I had when I initially got POTS. Nausea, sharp chest pains, palpitations (fluttering sensations in my chest), decreased exercise tolerance, and of course fast heart beat upon exertion.

[issie]

Thanks Jangle, interesting that some of the same treatments are used today. Some of the simple test that they did came to the same conclusion that scientist have spent millions to figure out. LOL

Issie

[Guest Alex]

Jangle,

this is absolutely amazing.

When my symptoms started - increased hr, chest pain etc I found a forum moderated by a very knowledgeable retired neurologist - he's 90 and spends a lot of time helping people who have medical q about heart issues, palps, etc. He was "right on the money" I guess as he told me that what I have is DaCosta syndrome. I did mention this to one of the ER drs in one of my many trips there and i remember him shrugging his shoulders and telling my husband to take me home as it's all in my head and ER's are not the "healthiest"places to be in.

Great article. Thanks for finding and posting it.

[ramakentesh]

have you read the article on De Costa syndrome on wikipedia? I think the concept that it is a psychogenic illness is still quite strong.

[Guest Alex]

ramakentesh,

I have not, but now that you've brought this up I will look it up and read it. Sounds interesting.

thanks

[ramakentesh]

Always the problem with illnesses that rely on subjective patient description of symptoms rather than measurable deficits say in nerve function or muscle conduction. This may eventually change however as consistent abnormalities in cerebral blood flow control, parasympathetic activity, stroke volume, MSNA nerve firing responses, MIBG reuptake scans and angiotensin/oxidisive stress parameters are all beginning to be frequently found in POTS patients. In CFS there is work zeroing in on cerebral antioxidant status and spinal fluid proteins (inflammatory - some similar to Alziemers (sorry - can never spell that).

Eventually a pots patients might find themselves having their ang II tested, may go off for an MIBG scan to measure NE reuptake in the heart, or be sent to a specialist for a QSART test or lumber puncture to measure CNS fluid abnormalities.

[Guest Alex]

here are 2 more articles on DaCosta's syndrome. Quite interesting/intriguing. Worth spending some time reading in my opinion.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~posture/

http://users.chariot.net.au/~posture/DaCosta'sSyndrome.html

Alex

[abnel]

interesting that one of the herbs used to treat POTS mentioned in that article is Aconite which was included in a Chinese herbal formulation prescribed for me. Unfortunately I can't access it (unavailable where I live), but I've heard it can do wonders to help.

[issie]

Alex,

Thank you for the link on posture. I found that fascinating. It's funny that there would be an issue with that and it could cause some of the problems. I know with me - I had varicose veins at a very young age and my posture could be imporved. So, there may be some merit to it.

Issie

[Beckles]

Thanks! That's really interesting and timely. My doc just told me this morning that he thinks I have Da Costa's syndrome but not POTS.

[tachyfor50years]

Here is another link, hope it will be useful.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1277260/