PoTs - Alternative Diagnosis Worth Exploring

Artemis23 said:

Hi All!

So I posted here a year or so ago, thinking I definitely had reactive hypoglycemia. My symptoms were very similar to diabetic lows but without actually getting low blood sugar.

I've since been diagnosed with POTS, which is a type of orthostatic intolerance. In essence, when I stand, my heart rate sky rockets, and my blood pressure does as well (though most people have their blood pressure drop, there is hyper and hypo POTS).

The symptoms are pretty much match typical low blood sugar symptoms: racing heart, clammy, sweating, feeling weak, shaking, irritable, dizziness, etc etc.

It's also easy to think it's related to food, because symptoms are alleviated by high salt intake. Sweet, high refined carb foods tend to be lower in salt, so it's easy to see a pattern with higher sugar and more symptoms.

The test is simple. Using a blood pressure monitor, you check your heart rate and blood pressure while lying down for ten minutes or so, then stand up and test every minute or so for ten- fifteen minutes. (Google poor man's tilt table test for POTS for more directions).

I went to a cardiologist after seeing that my stats qualified me for a POTS diagnosis, and was advised to dramatically up my salt intake (it's caused usually by low blood volume and salt increases your blood volume). Since then (Nov 2021) I haven't had a single episode of those horrid symptoms.

Just putting this out there in the hopes of helping someone searching for answers like I was!

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rosemaree said:

@Artemis23 Thanks for sharing this! I always had weird symptoms (since I was a child) that I used to think were related to sugar, I have even considered reactive hypoglycemia, but I've been looking at nervous system issues and came across pots some time ago, it seems to fit my symptoms better. I am hoping to get to a therapist who I can talk to about my concerns soon.
Really interesting what you say about the salt - I've always had a sweet tooth and never used much salt, but a couple of years ago I actually started adding salt to my food and I felt so much better for it, it's been really weird, because everyone always tells you to limit salt, and it has been hard to explain how it helped!

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NEOBAHAMUT said:

Good evening.

I’ve been having the same symptoms for a few years now….shakes, nausea, weakness, tremor, fatigue, breathless and palpitations. My blood sugars always remain in the normal range generally. Now when this first started about 4 years ago I came on here thinking it was diabetes. I have had all the tests at the GP and also been under endocrinology department and they have also confirmed I don’t have diabetes.

I am currently booked in for an appointment in the next couple of weeks for a tilt table test at the hospital (as I’m now under cardiology)….

we will see what comes of that.

@EllieM thanks for tagging me….. I’ve only just logged back in to the forum as I saw this thread… didn’t realise that you had tagged me. But thanks very much for this. As I’ve said above since my last set of posts I’ve pushed and pushed for this so hoping this test confirms…..

I’m still struggling to control my symptoms.

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Artemis23 said:

Hi All!

So I posted here a year or so ago, thinking I definitely had reactive hypoglycemia. My symptoms were very similar to diabetic lows but without actually getting low blood sugar.

I've since been diagnosed with POTS, which is a type of orthostatic intolerance. In essence, when I stand, my heart rate sky rockets, and my blood pressure does as well (though most people have their blood pressure drop, there is hyper and hypo POTS).

The symptoms are pretty much match typical low blood sugar symptoms: racing heart, clammy, sweating, feeling weak, shaking, irritable, dizziness, etc etc.

It's also easy to think it's related to food, because symptoms are alleviated by high salt intake. Sweet, high refined carb foods tend to be lower in salt, so it's easy to see a pattern with higher sugar and more symptoms.

The test is simple. Using a blood pressure monitor, you check your heart rate and blood pressure while lying down for ten minutes or so, then stand up and test every minute or so for ten- fifteen minutes. (Google poor man's tilt table test for POTS for more directions).

I went to a cardiologist after seeing that my stats qualified me for a POTS diagnosis, and was advised to dramatically up my salt intake (it's caused usually by low blood volume and salt increases your blood volume). Since then (Nov 2021) I haven't had a single episode of those horrid symptoms.

Just putting this out there in the hopes of helping someone searching for answers like I was!

Click to expand...