Encore Episode: Connecting the Dots of POTS Syndrome
Episode 141
On this episode of Integrative Wellness Radio, join Dr. Nicole as she sheds light on the topic of POTS or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, a condition where the heart rate increases on changing your posture, often causing dizziness or fainting. Once considered a very rare condition, Dr. Nicole explains why there is a huge influx of individuals (mostly women) with the disease today and why it has become more and more common. She uncovers some of the environmental, physical, and biochemical factors contributing to POTS. Tune in to learn more about the symptoms and how you can take better care of yourself. Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2022 Noteworthy Time Stamps: 01:03 Influx of women with POTS 02:23 The compounding effect that contributes to the onset of POTS 02:52 Varying degrees and key symptoms of POTS 04:53 Autonomic Response Testing at IWG 06:49 Adrenal function and POTS 08:44 The catalyst that sets the symptoms in motion 9:45 Getting a bird’s eye view of the vascular system 10:51 Connective tissue issues’ impact on the vascular system 13:05 POTS is not a mystery with the right testing
Topics: pots, syndrome, unknown, integrative, symptoms, here, wellness, nicole
Key takeaways from this episode
- Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
- I am Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole, running solo today, but I am here to talk to you about POTS syndrome.
- So I'm here to really connect the dots as to, uh, what is commonly said about the cause of POTS syndrome, but also what are we seeing in our clinic.
- Because at the end of the day, when we are diagnosed with some type of condition, or we have a odd set of symptoms, it's never one thing. **Unknown:** It's usually a compounding effect of many things.
- Some of the other things that we've found to be extremely correlated with POTS syndrome is the health of the adrenal glands, and the reason why is because the adrenals are a gland in the body that really control our blood pressure.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
I am Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole, running solo today, but I am here to talk to you about POTS syndrome.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here all alone. Welcome back. I am Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole, running solo today, but I am here to talk to you about POTS syndrome. And for those of you not necessarily familiar with POTS syndrome, but it technically stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And for many years, this syndrome was actually known to be quite rare. And I feel like within the past year and a half, uh, in my clinical practice here at Integrative Wellness Group, I've seen a massive influx of POTS syndrome, especially affecting women between the ages of fifteen up to thirty-five.
**Unknown:** And I would say some of the most common things that I'm, I'm seeing is it's usually the POTS syndrome sets in after a, a significant change in the woman's life. Uh, sometimes that change is stress. Uh, sometimes it's a change of location, which also induces stress. And, uh, a lot of times it's after a main- major hormonal change.
**Unknown:** So sometimes that's, uh, having a baby or even, uh, having a thyroid diagnosis. So I'm here to really connect the dots as to, uh, what is commonly said about the cause of POTS syndrome, but also what are we seeing in our clinic. Uh, the main reason why we are able to understand this condition a little bit deeper is because we have very advanced diagnostic testing here at Integrative Wellness Group, so we're able to evaluate the body in a more comprehensive way, which then allows us to really understand where the POTS syndrome is coming from, but also the other layers that are involved. Because at the end of the day, when we are diagnosed with some type of condition, or we have a odd set of symptoms, it's never one thing.
**Unknown:** It's usually a compounding effect of many things. So in taking an approach to get better, it's extremely, extremely important to understand that you need to look at the big picture, and it's not about one thing per se. So some of the key symptoms that we're going to see with, with POTS syndrome is there, there's obviously varying ranges of POTS syndrome. There are women that come to my practice that are wheeled in, um, lit- literally on a stretcher or even in a wheelchair because they cannot be in an upright position because of how bad the dizziness and the nausea is.
**Unknown:** And then there are other individuals that are functioning pretty well in the day-to-day, but if they make rapid movements, if they get up too fast, they could literally get dizzy or they can faint. So it definitely has varying degrees. So if you are someone who maybe is experiencing this lightheadedness, you tend to have very low blood pressure, you tend to feel foggy quite often, your body might be showing minor signs of POTS syndrome. So it's a matter of kind of getting your body looked at in a very comprehensive manner to see, you know, is this something that you maybe are developing or is there other things that are going on that are contributing to these symptoms as well?
**Unknown:** So when we're really looking at what are we saying in the medical model as to, you know, what is, what is happening with POTS syndrome? What is the cause? You know, what is the reasoning behind it? And really the answer is not very clear because many physicians are saying this is called dysautonomia, meaning it's a dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system.
**Unknown:** Autonomic nervous system is the nervous system or the, the nerves that control most of your organs and vital functions, like everything from your heartbeat to your digestion, et cetera. So it's just our answer right now is saying that we don't know what is disrupting the autonomic nervous system, but we know that the autonomic nervous system is not functioning properly, which is then affecting the blood pressure and the blood volume, which is inducing the symptoms. So interesting enough here at IWG, we actually do a very specific type of test called autonomic response testing. This was a specific style of testing that was created by Dr.
**Unknown:** Klinghardt, who Dr. Klinghardt is one of the world's, uh, experts in Lyme's disease as well as other types of co-infections that come along with Lyme's disease. And it's actually a style of muscle testing. So my husband, Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick, uh, we work side by side here, and he was trained in other styles of muscle testing. So when we were introduced to this very, very advanced version of testing called the autonomic response testing, it made so much sense for our practice because we were able to evaluate what types of infections, what types of toxins, what types of stressors are negatively impacting the autonomic nervous system. And this was extremely eye-opening because we would take this information, and then we would pair it with our other lab testing, like our blood analysis, our stool analysis, our saliva testing, and it would just take the testing a step further and provide clarity on infections that could be hiding, number one. And number two isGiving us a better understanding of why blood levels look the way that they do.
**Unknown:** Because sometimes you can look at blood levels and say, "Okay, well I see that this is going on, but what is the major cause?" And like as an example, you know, an iron deficiency. So you might have an iron deficiency because you don't consume enough iron, but you might have an iron deficiency because you have a specific organism in your body, usually it is in the parasite family, that is eating your iron. So it really helps to provide clarity as to why certain things may look the way they do in your lab testing. So this style of testing is really giving us clarity on where these stressors are coming from and what is stressing the autonomic nervous system.
**Unknown:** So to really take this a step further, um, so outside of being able to really understand, you know, what types of infections or toxins are, or allergies are stressing the autonomic nervous system. Some of the other things that we've found to be extremely correlated with POTS syndrome is the health of the adrenal glands, and the reason why is because the adrenals are a gland in the body that really control our blood pressure. So when we go through periods of time of, you know, burning the candle at both ends, feeling very emotionally stressed out, you know, just kind of working, being a mom, just being go, go, go, we have a tendency to burn out our adrenal glands because the adrenals are primarily what makes adrenaline. So the longer this goes on and the longer the burnout happens on the adrenals, we will tend to have these fluctuations in our blood pressure, and most commonly we'll actually see low blood pressure.
**Unknown:** So once the blood pressure is low, this is having... The blood pressure is having a lot of trouble making its way up to the head, to the brain, uh, upon getting up fast. So we definitely will start to see these fluctuations in the blood pressure, and this is a big part of the puzzle when you're dealing with POTS syndrome is, is there, you know, a very, very stressed adrenal function that might be also playing a role in some of the symptoms. But I would say the most common thing that I see is when we are dealing with POTS, uh, I see a very common presentation with, with these women.
**Unknown:** And again, we see this catalyst that usually set their symptoms into motion, and sometimes it's stress, sometimes it's burnout, sometimes it's a big hormonal change. And what I will start to notice about the way that they're describing their symptoms is that they've kind of always had these low-grade vascular issues. They've always tended to be on the lower side of low, uh, of low blood pressure. They've, uh, tended to also notice that they get lightheaded if they, uh, go upside down, like if they've ever done, you know, gymnastics or anything like that.
**Unknown:** Uh, I also notice that they have some level of either like an ar- arrhythmia of their heart, or they have heart palpitations at times, or they have an increase in heart rate that happens occasionally. And when we start to dig deeper with the type of testing that we do, you know, we're doing the blood work, we're looking at this autonomic response testing, and then we're also bringing in a very advanced technology called bioresonance scanning. And the bioresonance scanning allows us to scan the body and look at systems that usually require very invasive procedures. And what I mean by that is really thoroughly evaluating, um, the cardiovascular system and being able to see what's going on in the cardiovascular system.
**Unknown:** You usually need advanced imaging and advanced types of testing that, uh, a, that really you need to be either injected with certain solutions to allow the imaging to display the function of the vascular system, um, using things like barium and other types of toxic solutions. So it's usually a very invasive and elaborate process. So using the bioresonance scanning, we can actually get a bird's eye view of the entire vascular system, and we can also look at the adrenals and the brain and how it's all connected and working together. And the most common thing that I'm seeing with POTS syndrome is a connective tissue condition that is negatively impacting the vascular system of the body.
**Unknown:** So what I will see is these cellular changes that are happening in the connective tissue that are weakening the connective tissue. So technically what we call this is lupus. The thing that people don't understand about lupus is by the time you see lupus in the blood, it has been manifesting for many, many, many years. So when you have POTS syndrome, you have to consider that you might be developing lupus that is negatively impacting your cardiovascular system, specifically the veins.
**Unknown:** And if this is happening, you will start to have this alteration in your blood pressure, this alteration in your blood volume, and you will start to have the symptoms of POTS syndrome. So this is very, very significant because in all of the women that I've worked with that have been diagnosed with POTS, this is the common denominator that I'm seeing, is I am seeing burnt out adrenals, I am seeing abnormally functioning adrenal glands, and I am seeing a fragile connective tissue that is the tissue that primer- primarily makes up their vascular system. So this combination together is what is inducing these symptoms. AndWhat you might be thinking is, "Well, why would the connective tissue become compromised?
**Unknown:** Like, why would the vascular system become compromised?" And this is because of infections and toxins that get into the body, and this is also something that we're able to see through the autonomic response testing. So you piece every single part of that puzzle together, and then you finally understand the core root of why these symptoms have manifested. And then from there, you can treat it. And I think that's the most important thing to take away is that POTS syndrome is, with the right testing, it's not a mystery.
**Unknown:** And in addition to that, with understanding what the root cause is, you can actually work with the body to peel away those layers and help the body to stabilize. So the treatment that we're often utilizing within our practice is we're getting rid of the burden. We're getting rid of whatever toxins or infections that are being found. We're working with getting the connective tissue to be healthy again by utilizing different therapies.
**Unknown:** And we're also making sure that we're stabilizing the blood pressure by stabilizing the adrenal glands. So we have many technologies in our office that can work on these organ systems, but then also we're giving you different things to take away that you can do at home to really help to further stabilize your system. So it's definitely not one thing, but again, with the right tools and the right testing, you can truly understand where these symptoms came from and have a plan and a solution. So I hope this was extremely helpful for those of you that are dealing with POTS syndrome or know someone with POTS syndrome, because I know that it can feel very disempowering to just feel like there's no answers and there's no hope.
**Unknown:** There is, um So please check out our website to learn a little bit more about what we do here. And if you are really just resonating with this and want to learn a little bit more about how to work with us, jump on a free strategy call with our client services team. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming.
**Unknown:** Wide awake, that's okay
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
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