Well Elevated Blood Pressure On Standing - Good Indication Of Hyperpots?

[Terrier]

Hi everyone, as increasing exercise (which I've always done a fair amount of anyway, uncomfortable as it is) hasn't affected my symptoms to any noticeable degree I'm starting on the quest to narrow down my subtype so I can figure out how best to approach potential medications and whatnot. Intuitively hyperPOTS has always sounded the most likely to me so that's what I'm looking into first.

Google suggests that a rise in blood pressure is one signifier of hyperPOTS so I've tested it out a couple of times. At rest mine has always been pretty low, generally somewhere around 95/65 but often lower than that too. On testing twice (different days) mine has gone from around 90/60 to 120/70 both times within ten minutes, along with the tachycardia of course. Seems a fair jump to me?

I think this has long been the case as prior to the POTS diagnosis I always noticed that if I had my BP taken by a nurse or doctor somewhere it was a fair bit higher than if I took it at home, at rest. But then since it was within the normal range and they had nothing to compare it to, nothing was said about it. Once or twice I commented that 120/80 was high by my standards but they never seemed to think much of it.

Does this sound like a solid enough justification to ask my GP for some tests? If so, does anyone have any experience of this under the NHS? I'm not even sure if it's something they'll really do. I'm not under a specialist, the cardiologist who diagnosed POTS pretty much just said 'try more exercise, eat more salt (vague, LOL), take a beta-blocker (which, having asthma, I didn't do but I gather this isn't always good with hyperPOTS anyway?)' then he discharged me. I was glad he knew enough to diagnose the POTS but I guess that was probably as far as his knowledge of it went.

Thanks

[SarahA33]

Terrier,

From what I've recently been researching, the dysautonomia physicians are stating that hyper-pots patients can have low/normal blood pressures. I've included a link written by Dr Raj from Vanderbilt that instructs the testing and symptoms of hyperadernergic pots. fyi, it is from 2006 but his newest article was written by himself and Dr. Levine and I don't particulaly care for it, and it somewhat confuses me (Which isnt hard to do these days!)

Have you looked into Orthostatic Hypertension?

Okay, sorry I can't paste the link for some reason. The article is on ncbi (pubMed) The Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS): Pathophysiology, Diagnosis & Management by Dr. Satish R. Raj, Published April 1, 2006 Good Luck and I hope you feel better! - Sarah

[lfreem02]

My Cardiologist hasn't referred to my diagnosis as hyper POTS, but said I have Dysautonomia that is genetic and that I have way too much adrenaline. My heart rate was going up to 165 when walking, and my blood pressure was also high. I was taking Midodrine, Fludrocortisone, and salt pills before seeing my current Cardiologist, because the doctors I had been seeing were only familiar with orthostatic hypotension. I have had my blood pressure and heart rate drop a little low at times, but it is rare. I am taking Atenolol, Zoloft, and Klonopin, which has helped. My last treadmill stress test was normal, but before I changed medications my heart rate went up to 190 and my blood pressure was 200/100. I can’t have any caffeine, and have cut out sugar. I also can’t take decongestants. I have cut way back on sodium, because of high blood pressure and edema. I do drink a lot of fluids, including Powerade Zero. Exercise is important, but I am not supposed to do plyometrics.

As I have read many times, each person is unique with their symptoms. I have had to play around with medications, exercise, diet, etc. to try to get my symptoms to the point of being manageable. I was in a car accident about two months ago, and it set me back. That is one of the times that I have had low blood pressure, and heart rate, but then it was right back up again.