Effect Of Autonomic Dysfunction On Your Cognitive Stamina And Ability?

[kellygirl]

Hello Everyone,

I am seriously getting bummed out. Due to the POTS diagnosis I have had to severely limit my physical activity. I am a registered nurse and am unable to meet the physical demands of my job physically. I thought that maybe I could go into some sort of remote work from home but now I am facing the fact that if I am on the computer for more than 45 minutes at a time, I go into complete brain fog, get confused, irritated, excessively fatigued mentally and physically, I lose the ability to follow instructions clearly after about 45 minutes, this is also true for reading a book or even watching a TV program. My attention span is short and I get exhausted.

Has your diagnosis affected your cognitive ability as well. I really thought it was no big deal losing some of my physical functioning as I could rely on my brain... but I am finding that I cannot?

If you have suffered cognitive loss, have you found any brain retraining to help increase cognitive stamina?

I want to go back to some sort of meaningful existance and find some sort of work to do, but I honestly don't know what. I would be a danger to patients... even to pass meds at this point!

[navyblue]

Initially, when I couldn't figure out why I was dizzy and "off", I was very affected cognitively. I couldn't get my physics textbook to make any sense, I struggled to keep my focus on a very simple book that I was trying to read for entertainment. There was one point in a class where I was taking notes and I couldn't even seem to spell...I kept writing homonyms for words instead of the words themselves- "right" for "write", etc. Not good. My grades for that quarter were the worst ever...for the first time in my life I got a C. I remember a particularly bad physics lab where I couldn't get my mind to understand ANYTHING. It was hard to get through, I was happy just to survive that quarter.

I now suspect that these issues were at least partly caused by how distressed I was about everything or some sort of "shock"....because with time, they did go away and I consider myself basically returned to my normal cognitive functioning- got all A's the next quarter, banged out an awesome essay in just one night, got over 100 on my physics final, and read the "Game of Thrones" series for fun. Maybe it was POTS linked too, I dunno - I certainly still have POTS symptoms, but not the cognitive issues.

So...in short...cognitive function and attention span can 100% come back. It feels like they're gone, but they're absolutely not, they're just sort of muted sometimes. I really thought for a couple months that I was stupider, but intelligence doesn't just disappear like that. Trust your brain. I didn't do any sort of retraining on my brain, just used the new school quarter as a fresh start. One thing that can help you remember that you're smart is debating people....because you don't want to lose an argument, you can dip into intelligence reserves you didn't know you have- so go find someone and discuss the 2016 Election (lol). You got this.

[Katybug]

Cognitive impairment is common with POTS. It is often attributed specifically to cerebral perfusion but I also think that the fatigue contributes to mine as well. This set of symptoms seems to wax and wane with my physical Pots symptoms for me. I did have a subscription to "Lumosity" for a while and I felt like it really helped me regain some of my cognitive loss when I was at my worst. I switched over to free android apps that had similar exercises to the Lumosity brain games. I can definitely feel it when I haven't been diligent about doing these exercises regularly. I have also found that taking CoQ10 and a B-Complex helps me with my fatigue and focus. I generally felt improvement in my cognitive skills as my POTS was more controlled. I have had a bad few months physically lately, and, there were a few days when my cognitive function was bad...bad enough that it scared me because I screwed up my dog's meds and some other important things. But, it is not permanent and it's not lost.

[looneymom]

POTS does cause cognitive issues. My son has had some problems in this area. It was scary to see the brain fog. He was a gifted student and it terrified me to see him not be able to remember concepts from day to day. I really thought it was affecting his memory and he was not retaining things. However, in school this last year I saw something totally different. The changes I saw, could be related to his treatment but I will tell you the supplements and medications that were being used and maybe this will help you. In the beginning of his condition, our doctor put him on Zoloft and Deplin (methylfolate). Through testing, we learned that my son had low serotinon levels. Amino Acids are the building blocks for neurotransmiters. My son was low on some of these and was put on a supplement to help balance these. GNC store has several supplements and shakes that contain amino acids. My son could not eat enought to keep his body rebuilding what it needed. My son also takes a medication called ER Namenda. Through reaseach, I found out that it could help with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome and a chronic headache. I tried to wean my son off this medication because I thought it was not helping at all. My son has a constant daily headache. This medication is also used for Alzheimers disease. Instead of my son's headache staying at a 6 of of 10 pain level scale, it went back up to level 10 when I brought his dosage down to 7mg. So needless to say my son is taking 14mg of ER Namenda 2 times a day. According to research, this medication has been known to lower the pain levels of headaches and CRPS after 6 months. My son has only been on this full dosage since July of this year. However, he has taken this medication since November in 2014 and what I noticed at the end of his 2015 school year his brain fog was gone and he was thinking clearer than ever. His end of the year state testing scores for school all showed up advanced. I suspect this mediction is doing alot for my son. Brain fog and cognitive issues are no fun to deal with. Maybe you can talk to your doctor about some of the medications or supplements I have mentioned in this post. I have had to learn by observation, much patience and having a doctor willing to think out of the box after looking at all the research articles that I send him.

[fitnesskelly]

I have cognitive problems. I have a Masters degree and used to be employed in a career that required strong mathematical skills. I left that job before first having any symptoms because I got married, but my skills remained strong. I did crossword puzzles, enrolled in Coursera online classes (difficult classes too, like a number of classes on genetics), learned web design and built a number of websites, did a lot of reading. Now I struggle to remember words, I can't figure out simple math like how much to tip, sometimes struggle to focus when reading...it's scary (esp. because I had a grandmother with Alzheimer's)!

[JenLR]

I have very similar symptoms. I was working as an attorney when I suddenly developed POTS, and now I don't even like to make a phone call without writing down the reason that I am calling. It feels like I forget conversations almost as soon as I have them. I am very frustrated with my memory issues, and ability to process information. And I would give anything to just be able to watch tv or read for more than an hour. I get so exhausted when I try to concentrate or look at lights, and noise really bothers me.

Looneymom, thanks for your suggestions on supplements that might help! I will definitely look into them.

[p8d]

Jen,

One thing aside from decreasing Gabepentin that seems to have helped me recently is increasing my magnesium glycinate (less diarrhea issues). I have more energy too. Also discovered I have low zinc levels so have started that. I have also started antibiotics for Lyme but had started the magnesium before any other treatments and noticed a difference. I also upped stationary biking to every other day, that might be helping with the Lyme herxing or brain fog but whatever, it can't hurt.

[Debbie Rose]

I had to go on disability at the end of May because my POTS symptoms started activating with stress of the job and the anxiety kicked up too and suddenly I was forgetting things, skipping a set of routine questions-causing my scores/evaluation to be affected. No One was willing to diagnose POTS and in NC there was only one person in Charlotte who treated but did not diagnose (holistic/homeopathic). So over a year ago I started the typical rule out scenario

Did I mention I am a Nurse-RN. So saw cardiologist and EP Cardiologist with 21 day monitor (which got lost) and attempted/failed ablation with no one willing to label anything. And on and on......

But I also saw a therapist for anxiety and a Neuropsychologists for the memory-they ran all kinds of tests for memory, concentration, focus as well as mental conditions. On the day of the appointment I was told to get plenty of sleep the night before and day before to be hydrated and in non stressed state. And then I saw a psychiatrist too later that month

The results were very interesting- I was normal for my age with all function-under those conditions

But we all know how stress can affect our conditions-and that is the key item that needs to be added to the equation

The test also found I have probably been hypomanic bipolar with depression and NOT Major Depression-once they added Latuda I was no longer depressed-FOR THE FIRST TIME in 35 years!!! or more-nice

Anyway-just wanted to provide info on where to seek testing if interested-it is very thorough