What are long haulers?
More people are reporting symptoms that linger for months after infection with COVID-19. Sometimes called “Long Haulers,” these people experience everything from exhaustion to headaches to shortness of breath and a racing heartbeat.
Some doctors have noticed similarities between these symptoms and a rare condition called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
What is Pots?
POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system. People with POTS experience a sudden drop of blood pressure when they stand up because their blood vessels don’t respond quickly enough to return blood to the heart and brain.
With POTS, the heart races and heart rate can double or triple upon standing up. Other symptoms of POTS include dizziness, headaches, shortness of breath, and brain fog. People can become sensitive to lights or sound or temperature. They can even develop digestive problems.
In many ways, POTS is similar to chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. The cause is unknown in conventional medicine, the symptoms are vague, and there is no definite cure. In my experience I have commonly seen POTS present with Epstein – Barr virus, mold, and Lyme disease.
Complete list of pots symptoms
This is the complete list of symptoms related to POTs from the Cleveland Clinic:
- High/low blood pressure
- High/low heart rate; racing heart rate
- Chest pain
- Dizziness/lightheadedness especially in standing up, prolonged standing in one position, or long walks
- Fainting or near-fainting
- Exhaustion/fatigue
- Abdominal pain and bloating, nausea
- Temperature deregulation (hot or cold)
- Nervous, jittery feeling
- Forgetfulness and trouble focusing (brain fog)
- Blurred vision
- Headaches and body pain/aches (may feel flu-like); neck pain
- Insomnia and frequent awakenings from sleep, chest pain and racing heart rate during sleep, excessive sweating
- Shakiness/tremors especially with adrenaline surges
- Discoloration of feet and hands
- Exercise intolerance
- Excessive or lack of sweating
- Diarrhea and/or constipation
How to deal with pots
When dealing with POTS, it is important to get to the root cause and take a holistic look at how all of the body systems interact. In POTS, there are interactions between the nervous system, adrenal function and overall stress response, immune system, gastrointestinal system and more.
Whereas the conventional approach to treating disease gives a medication to cover up a symptom, a functional approach looks under the hood for the root cause. We begin to balance the body systems from the inside out rather than just taping on a band-aid.
We are still learning how COVID-19 affects the body in the long run. We do, however, know a lot about the long-term effects of some other infections (like EBV and Lyme disease). It’s in these complex cases and unique presentations that root cause medicine and Naturopathic care shine.
Practicing medicine is a continuous process of learning and connecting what we already know with new situations. We are here to support all patients—but especially those who are not getting the results they want and deserve elsewhere. Please reach out to our office at support@drkaseyholland.com if you have any questions about how we can help.
References:
Rubin R. As Their Numbers Grow, COVID-19 “Long Haulers” Stump Experts. JAMA. 2020;324(14):1381–1383.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771111
National Institutes of Health. NINDS POTS
Dysautonomia International. General Information Brochure on Orthostatic Intolerance and its Treatment
NHS. Postural Tachycardia Syndrome PoTS.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16560-postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-pots
