Lily

Dairy proteins set off my Tourette Syndrome, but not my POTS as far as I know. I suppose that a POTS reaction to dairy would mean that any POTS symptom can get worse after you have eaten it and/or it has had time to digest.

I use ThermoTabs, too. It is nice that they contain some potassium, but they are harsh on my stomach, too. I also suspect that I'm not taking enough. The past few days I have experimented with drinking 1/2 tsp of Himalayan salt (lots of trace elements) in water in the morning. That gives me 2.8 g of salt to start the day. Also, commercial electrolyte drinks should be mostly avoided. They all contain added sugar, which promotes ill health, and most of them have artificial colors, which are made from petroleum.

You can also just eat some salt, or dissolve it in water and drink it. Tastes nasty, but it gets the salt in. Foods that I put salt on: all meats, all vegetables (starchy and fibrous), on bread with olive oil, cold salads like waldorff and egg. I don't eat a lot of grains, but when I do I salt them.

I have ADHD and POTS, too. I still have some ADHD symptoms even on an excellent medication. I wonder if these are caused by POTS instead pf ADHD?

I wear the open-toe pantyhose because I consistently put holes in closed-toe stockings. The open-toe hose works with flip-flops, but you can't walk around barefoot. Hence my experiment with leggings. The first ones I bought were only 15-20 mmHg, and blood still pooled a bit in my feet. I'm going to try the generic ones , Absolute Support at Discount Surgical Stockings. They are 20-30 mmHg, and only $37. I'll let you all know how they perform after I get them.

I have never tried it. Sigvaris Access and similarly hardy hose goes in the washing machine. Fragile hose like Sigvaris Eversheer gets hand washed. They all get washed with whatever detergent I have.

To find the other brands of leggings I searched the internet for "medical compression leggings." Many internet stores showed up, and I checked them all until I found the ones that actually had leggings. I forget what the brands were, other than Juzo.

I use open-toe pantyhose, 20-30 mm Hg. I bought one pair of compression leggings to try because no feet would be great for summer. Juzo has compression leggings in lots of colors, but they are only 15 - 20 mm Hg. Not enough, but better than nothing. My foot veins still fill and distend when I wear them, but not as much as without. Also, they are not solid like fashion leggings, but semi-opaque like tights. There are a few other brands that have compression leggings in 20-30 mm Hg, but they only come in beige, black, and brown. These also look like they will be semi-opaque.

Psychological anxiety is triggered by what's going on in your mind, but it creates physical symptoms that are the same as hyperandrenergic POTS symptoms. In both cases you end up with high NE and dopamine and the associated physical symptoms, but the root cause is very different.

Another potsy professor here. I'm glad your professors are being helpful and cooperative. They're supposed to, but you never know. It is my understanding that exercise is supposed to strengthen the leg muscles so that they can help squeeze blood back up into the body when it is pooling. Also, that it takes time to become effective, and that it should be done while seated, at least at first. I may be wrong about all this. Nevertheless, since you are walking to classes you may want to do recumbent cycling or rowing machine instead of more walking. Other things I find useful: putting my feet up whenever possible, teaching while seated, compression stockings, Thermotabs and water. If I can't put my feet up on a desk then I cram one foot onto the chair seat with me. Note that these do not fix the problem, but symptoms are not as prominent. And when symptoms are less noticeable they are less distracting (I also have ADHD), so I can be more productive.

My POTS slowly sneaked up on me, rather than having a definite beginning. My plasma norepinephrine is extremely high on standing, but I also have blood pooling issues. Fortunately I can hold down a full-time job (college professor), but still. It would be nice to not feel poorly most of the time. At least I can work with my feet on my desk without anyone complaining. Teaching is a problem, though, because it is customary to stand and there is not enough room to move around enough to keep the blood flow going. The other fun thing is how POTS and ADHD interact. I feel poorly, and this quickly becomes distracting because of the ADHD.

I shower at night because cooling down helps me sleep. Also, starting out warm means I will not want to fall asleep covered with a warm cover and therefore I will not wake up sweating in the middle of the night. My feet turn reddish-purplish, and the foot veins distend and protrude. I have never noticed fatigue or lightheadedness after showering, though. I do tend to skip a day, but that is not for POTS reasons.

I have hyperandrenergic POTS with blood pooling, work full time as a college professor, and no exercise intolerance. My doctor did not give me much guidance on exercise, other than to work up to 30 minutes of cardio against resistance 3x/wk. What do I do now that I can meet that goal? Work on increasing the resistance? The duration of exercise? Both? Maintain and focus on weightlifting? And speaking of weightlifting, what should my leg exercises be aimed at, pure strength, hypertrophy,or muscular endurance? What have you all been told?

I am an assistant professor on the tenure track at a comprehensive university. Teaching is more important than research, which is good because I am a geoscientist and lots of field work would be difficult. I got my PhD before the hyperandrenergic POTS was prominent enough to be diagnosed or cause problems, so my ADHD was more of an issue than POTS. My job is great because I have almost complete flexibility to use whatever hacks I need to in order to work with POTS. I can work with my feet up on my desk, or work from home on non-teaching days. I can teach while seated if I need to. I can choose research projects that I think I will be able to do, physically. All good. And if my POTS hacks look weird, well, professors are expected to be eccentric!

Can anyone here help me out with specifics about how and where Methyldopa works? I have POTS with blood pooling and hyperandrenergic components (and NMS). I also have ADHD. I take Strattera for that, and it is a NE retake inhibitor. Works very well for my ADHD, especially in combination with fish oil. My tilt table test was done Strattera-free for 1 day. Yes, it takes 3-4 days to completely clear from the body of a normal metabolizer, but cardiologist knows this and said 1 day was enough. Plasma NE was 1962 standing, not measured supine. Cardiologist and neurologist both insist that the brain can be deficient in NE (and hence ADHD) and my body concurrently be producing too much. They also both believe that the Strattera is not causing POTS. Atenolol made me depressed, so cardiologist suggested Methyldopa as having lower potential to cause problems than Clonidine. So far it seems to be helping a little (not getting so tired as quickly), but I've only been on it for a few days. Now the question: Does the Methyldopa work in the brain or in the body? If in the brain, will it cancel out the Strattera and make my ADHD worse? Why or why not? So far it doesn't seem to be doing that, but if it is a false neurotransmitter, maybe it needs time to build up to full action? I would like to understand better, but I'm not sure where to go to learn more without taking on a full class about the nervous system. I need to spend my time preparing my own classes to teach instead (sedimentology)! Can anyone help me out here?