Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) can feel like a never-ending, uphill battle. If you are living with POTS, you likely know how it can make even simple tasks like standing, exercising, or just getting through your day feel incredibly difficult. Symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, heart palpitations, brain fog, and more can leave you wondering how to manage your condition and regain control over your life.
Understanding who treats POTS and what treatment options are available is crucial to finding a path to healing. In this guide, we’ll discuss the healthcare professionals who can help you manage POTS, why it’s so important to find the right treatment, and the role innovative treatments like brain retraining can play in your recovery.
re-origin is a neuroscience-backed brain retraining program designed to help you overcome symptoms of your chronic health condition. Whether you’re struggling with POTS, chronic pain or fatigue, food and chemical sensitivities, or a mental health condition, we can help you move forward on your path to healing. Learn more about the re-origin program here.
Why Is It Important to Find Treatment for POTS?
Living with untreated POTS can make symptoms worsen over time. Without proper management, your dizziness, fatigue, and even chest pain can become more severe, making it increasingly difficult to live a normal life. This isn’t just a temporary inconvenience—it’s a condition that impacts your day-to-day functioning, potentially causing chronic pain, anxiety, and depression along the way.1
Because POTS affects the autonomic nervous system, it can interfere with critical bodily functions like regulating blood pressure, heart rate, and blood flow. Seeking treatment isn’t just about alleviating discomfort; it’s about improving your body’s ability to respond to everyday activities and reducing the risk of more serious complications like fainting, heart problems, or chronic autonomic dysfunction.2
Finding the right treatment plan, combining both traditional and innovative therapies, can help you regain control and improve your quality of life. It can give you back the energy and stability you need to feel like yourself again, whether that be in work, social life, or simply everyday tasks.
Innovative Treatment: Brain Retraining and Somatic Exercises
If you’ve tried traditional treatments and been unable to find relief, brain retraining is a promising new option. This method taps into neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s remarkable ability to change and reorganize itself.4 If your symptoms haven’t responded to medication or lifestyle changes, brain retraining offers a chance to retrain the brain and nervous system to respond differently, encouraging your entire body to function more effectively, and helping you manage POTS symptoms more successfully.
Brain retraining at re-origin combines cognitive techniques and somatic exercises—physical practices that help you reconnect with your body and calm your nervous system. This approach focuses on helping your brain and body adapt, allowing you to better manage the autonomic responses that worsen POTS symptoms.
Somatic Exercises
When you have POTS, your autonomic nervous system is often out of balance. This dysregulation can lead to symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, and even an increased heart rate. Somatic exercises are designed to restore balance to the nervous system, calming your body’s stress response and improving autonomic function.
These exercises can include mindful movement, breathing techniques, and body scanning. Regular practice can engage the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps slow down the body’s stress response and regulates heart rate and blood pressure. Somatic exercises also help improve blood flow, which is essential for POTS, especially for those with orthostatic intolerance, where symptoms worsen when standing or sitting upright.4
Nervous System Regulation
Nervous system regulation is essential for managing POTS, especially when dealing with an overactive sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for your body’s stress response, but when overactive, it can cause heightened symptoms like brain fog, dizziness, and an increased heart rate. You can work on regulating this system through brain retraining and somatic practices, teaching your brain to respond more calmly to stress and reducing symptoms over time.
For many people with POTS, especially those who haven’t seen significant improvements from traditional treatments, brain retraining and nervous system regulation offer an alternative solution that addresses the root cause of symptoms rather than simply masking them.4
Traditional Treatments for POTS
While brain retraining is an innovative option, others may prefer more traditional treatments. These treatments can help you manage physical symptoms and may involve medications, lifestyle changes, and therapies that target blood pressure, heart rate, and other autonomic functions.
Primary Care Providers
Your primary care provider (PCP) is likely the first doctor you’ll contact when seeking a POTS diagnosis. Your PCP will assess your symptoms, conduct initial tests, and may refer you to specialists for further treatment. They may prescribe medications to help manage dizziness, headaches, or heart palpitations. They might also suggest lifestyle changes like increasing salt intake, wearing compression stockings to improve blood circulation, and ensuring you drink enough fluids to boost blood volume.2
Cardiologists
Cardiologists are heart specialists who can help you manage POTS, particularly if you’re experiencing heart-related symptoms like chest pain, palpitations, or a fast heart rate. Cardiologists can monitor your autonomic nervous system by conducting tests like the tilt table test to assess how your body responds to changes in position, such as standing up. They can also prescribe medications like beta-blockers to help regulate your heart rate. Compression stockings may also be recommended to support your blood vessels and help improve circulation, especially if you experience orthostatic intolerance.3
Neurologists
Neurologists specialize in disorders of the nervous system and can help diagnose and treat POTS, especially when the condition involves neurological factors. They may recommend tests like electrocardiograms to assess the function of your autonomic nervous system and determine how your body’s systems are interacting. Neurologists can also do other tests to help identify any underlying neurological causes of your symptoms.1
Endocrinologists
If you have hormonal imbalances, an endocrinologist can help. Hormones are vital in regulating blood pressure, heart rate, and the body’s response to stress, all of which are crucial in managing POTS. If there are issues with your thyroid, cortisol, or other hormones, an endocrinologist can help balance them with medications, potentially alleviating some of your POTS symptoms.5
Physical Therapists
Physical therapists are essential for managing the mobility challenges that come with POTS, especially if you have orthostatic intolerance or other movement-related symptoms. A physical therapist can design a personalized exercise program to help you slowly build strength, improve circulation, and regain your ability to stand, walk, and engage in physical activities. These exercises can also help your blood pressure and stabilize your blood pressure and reduce symptoms like dizziness and fatigue.6
There is Hope for Overcoming POTS
Living with POTS can be overwhelming, but it’s important to know that there are many treatment options available to help you manage symptoms and improve your quality of life. Whether you pursue traditional treatments like medications and physical therapy or try innovative options like brain retraining and somatic exercises, you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Combining traditional and emerging treatments can provide you with a well-rounded approach to healing, offering you hope and the opportunity to take control of your health.
The re-origin program has helped thousands of individuals overcome symptoms of their chronic health conditions. If you are ready to learn more about how brain retraining can help you change your response to your symptoms and start feeling better, learn more about the re-origin program here.
FAQ
What kind of doctor will diagnose POTS?
A primary care provider (PCP) is often the first doctor to diagnose patients with POTS. However, specialists such as cardiologists, neurologists, and endocrinologists may also play a role in confirming the diagnosis and managing the condition.
Is POTS an autoimmune disease?
POTS is not classified as an autoimmune disease. However, it can sometimes be associated with autoimmune conditions, such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or lupus, which may complicate the diagnosis and treatment.
Are POTS cardiac or neurological?
POTS is both a cardiac and neurological condition. It involves dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate and blood pressure regulation.
