symptoms much worse after eating

[Julie]

I have been diagnosed with POTS but not started on any treatment until they actually do the tilt table test. and thats not until Nov. 12.

I have noticed after eating my symptoms get much worse. Yesterday, after dinner I could feel the blood flowing in (or out of or something) of my hands and arms and face. Then I got an instant headache, and started to get numbness and pains in my hands and arms. And I got severely lightheaded, like I could pass out. I had shortness of breath and my heart was pounding very hard. My vision got blurry and I was so cold. And I was so weak and so very, very tired. I had to lie down. Being up made it much worse.

I didn't even eat very much.

Is this normal for POTS? How do you deal with it?

thanks

Julie

[ethansmom]

It is very normal for POTS patients to feel worse after eating- the reason being that after we have a meal, our blood flow is concentrated on digesting that food, and it takes away from the rest of our vital organs (like our brain, lol!!). What the doctors usually recommend is to stay away from large meals, and eat several smaller meals each day. I do this anyhow, because I never have *time* to eat, so I sort of snack throughout the day, and I don't seem to have this problem anymore. Here is an excerpt taken from the following link:

http://www.potsplace.com/what_to_avoid.htm

"Eating large meals can worsen hypotension in some individuals with dysautonomia (Mathias, 2000). This is because large meals can cause blood to pool excessively in the abdomen."

Try eating less at each meal, more frequently, and see how you feel. Keep us posted = )

[Roy]

Yes, this is common. I have to eat smaller meals during the day to avoid this. If I do eat a large meal I become very tired and lethargic.

Also, avoid sugar. I saw a specialist for POTS recently and the first thing about diet was small meals and no sugar.

The other day I decided to ingnore this and had an apple juice and I felt awful the rest of the afternnon and evening.

[geneva]

I would just add to the suggestions of small meals and avoiding sugar, that I have to avoid high carb meals like pasta. Before I realized this I would feel awful and my symptoms would last for hours. Now, I try to eat some protein first at every meal and it helps. You might try keeping a food diary for a few weeks to see which foods cause the type of reaction you experienced. This helped me because I couldn't remember! When I kept track it was easy to figure out what would work better for me.

Good luck finding what works best for you.

[bethany08xu]

Hi,

I too have a problem with carb's,it took me a few bad experience's before I realized it was the carb's. A food diary is a a great idea. Good luck.

Bethany

[SparkNik]

I can totally vouch for not feeling well after meals. Just today I had eaten a piece of bread with peanut butter and felt horrible the rest of the afternoon into the evening. Had lots of palps and fatigued where I had to lay down and sleep for a couple of hours. Woke up and still felt horrible. I try to keep my meals small and frequent but sometimes I lose myself and cheat and then pay the price..