I’ve had a number of bad falls & faints that have left me injured - and as a result have learned many tips & tricks to keep myself safe.
Dysautonomia is an umbrella term for conditions that cause malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system - which is the system that controls all unconscious processes. Things like breathing, blood pressure, heart rate & temperature regulation.
POTS stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and is the most common presentation. When a healthy person stands up - their blood vessels constrict & send blood upwards to the brain. In POTS this function is impaired.
When someone with POTS stands up - the blood pools in the lower half of their body. Their heart rate increases in an attempt to force blood up to the brain. This can leave them sweaty, breathless, dizzy & nauseous - and sometimes they faint.
The tachycardia that comes with POTS can significantly decrease overall quality of life. I tell people to think of their most difficult cardiac workout & how hard they have to push their body to get their heart rate into a fat burning zone.
Now imagine that happening when brushing your teeth or drying your hair. Imagine feeling like you’re running a marathon every time you try & stand up. It’s incredibly disconcerting and exhausting because we are basically getting a cardiac workout whenever we’re upright.
When POTS episodes become more severe - a patient will start to faint. I used to get early warning signs like blurred vision, nausea and headache… signs that my body needed me to sit immediately or it was going to force me to the ground.
These days I faint with very little warning - a combination of worsening tachycardia coupled with dangerously low blood pressure. But during the “warning years” I learned a lot of tips & tricks to stay safe & conscious.
First - if you feel faint you NEED to sit down. Laying down is preferable. It took me a long time to stop being embarassed about this & just sit down in public no matter where I was. I learned the hard way that if you don’t do it voluntarily - your body will force you.
Increasing fluid & salt intake helps a ton. I’m never without a bottle of water & salt tablets. If extra symptomatic I find drinking 500ml of ice cold water as quickly as possible can stave off a faint. Otherwise sipping water & electrolytes slowly throughout day works best.
Compression socks & abdominal binders make a big difference. When I got my first pair of compression socks I was covered in sweat & breathless from fighting to get them on. Solution? Put them on first thing in morning before you get out of bed! Your legs will be less swollen.
Speaking of bed - if you elevate the head of your bed it’ll help your body be less shocked by gravity when you get up in the morning. I sleep with head elevated & spend the rest of the day with my legs elevated as much as possible.
Keeping your legs & core strong is also important. While dysautonomia is not caused by deconditionning - losing muscle & strength can make it worse. If your legs are strong you can contract the muscles & have them do what your blood vessels are failing to do. 1/2
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