How I Deal with POTS:
Hi all, I hope you’re keeping well and had a good week!
Today's edition will be a concise one, and I’m going to share a couple of things that have helped me with POTS.
As many of you will be aware, POTs,( or post-orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) is a prevalent symptom in illnesses like Long covid and ME/CFS, and it can throw up a range of horrible symptoms from dizziness to palpitations and more.
For me, it usually presents in random heart flutters (not the good kind), brain fog, changing temperature and a lead-like feeling of weight in my legs when I stand up too long.
Over the years it has got a lot better and is still improving, but I still face some issues when I don’t take precautions.
Anyway, here’s a few things that helped:
- Salt.
When you hear salt, you typically think dangerous and unhealthy. But with POTS, it appears that having higher levels of salt in your diet can help stabilise your blood volume and reduce symptoms.
I do this in two ways.
Firstly, I make sure I thoroughly season all my food, which I don’t mind at all because I love salt, and I often have some salty snacks on hand, such as rice cakes or nuts.
Secondly, I have these salt electrolytes from LMNT, these are especially useful when I’m sweating a lot or spending time abroad - I was recommended them by someone on on the mend, and they taste pretty great too!
POTS UK recommends around about 6-10g a day, which is just over a teaspoon of salt, but figure out what works for you, and chat to your doctor if you have any concerns!
2. Compression leggings.
Now these stunning pieces of high fashion are my compression leggings.
No I’m not a runner, and no, I’m not 80 years old, but these are genuinely so helpful. They help to maintain blood flow by compressing the lower parts of your legs, and if you’re going to be on your feet for a while, I cannot recommend them enough.
They massively help me to stop the weird swelling I sometimes get when on my feet for too long.
You can get these on amazon for about £10, or you can also wear some kind of gym leggings too if you want to look a bit more fashionable.
3.Cold water
For me, POTS + boiling hot showers are not horrendous, but I know for many they aren’t the best. I do have a hot shower before bed but in the mornings I have a cold shower.
Not only does it settle my nervous system and give me an energy boost, but the cold water helps to constrict your blood flow, which is much more helpful in POTS.
4. Exercise
Exercise is something that is very dependent on where you are in your recovery. For me, I focus a lot on yoga, because you spend a lot of time horizontal, it's easy to scale, yet it gets the blood moving which is important and helpful with POTS.
5. Meals
I’ve played around with endless fancy diets, but I keep coming to the same conclusion. For me, I feel best when I eat clean, whole, paleo foods. Some of you may struggle with histamine or other intolerances, but for me I just stick to the whole foods rule.
When it comes to POTS, the thing that makes the biggest difference when it comes to diet is meal size. Huge meals can send all your blood flow to your stomach, which can exacerbate POTS symptoms. So I try to aim for more smaller, more regular meals.
6. Medication
I haven’t taken any medication for pOTS, so I can’t really comment one this. But I know there are some out there, and it’s something that might be worth discussing with your doctor if things are particularly bad.
Anyway, I hope that was useful, drop me a reply if you have any other things that are helping you, and see you next week!
