Your blood pressure can also increase with POTS. That is the case for me. Mine increased by 34/32 on standing. You may want to video tape your results; my doctor did not believe me when I told her I went from 60 to 120’s on standing. Once they get it in their head that you’re a hypochondriac b/c of all the weird symptoms – game over. It was my ND (Naturopathic Doctor) that took my pulse and BP lying down and standing and confirmed the POTS. I just haven’t had any testing and the MD’s roll their eyes when I mention an ND diagnosed me.
Hi MJ,
Yes, you’re right, basically the body will try any means possible to keep the blood flowing to the brain and if it doesn’t raise the heart rate, it will raise the blood pressure instead.
Strange that I forgot to mention that the blood pressure could also ‘go up’ because that’s actually what happens to me!! Over the almost 5 years, since I’ve been fitted with a Philadelphia collar 24/7, my POTS seems to have mutated to NMH (Neurally Mediated HypERtension). In that, my body now compensates for ‘lack of blood to the brain’ by raising my blood pressure (abnormally) when I stand up.
For instance, after writing about the Poor Man’s Tilt Test yesterday, today I thought I’d carry one out myself (just for the record) with help. The results were:
After laying for 15 mins 137/84 HR 73
Sitting for 15 mins 143/90 HR 68
Taken immediately upon standing 165/101 (erm, not good!) HR 80
After standing 3 mins 167/103 (way too high) HR 77
After standing another 3 mins 163/100 HR 78
After standing another 3 mins 158/103 HR 84
Maybe the fact that I’d just had a shower and was ‘whacked’ had something to do with my high BP. Although I sit up to sleep and sit up to do almost everything, I do try and stand up many, many times a day for about 30 seconds or so, to make sure that I don’t loose my ability to do so but I don’t stay upright too long, as I start to sweat and feel unwell.
If you notice my heart-rate only jumped 12 points from sitting to standing, whereas to qualify for POTS it has to raise by 30 points (mine used to jump by at least 30 points, sitting to standing and when I first got up in the morning, it was commonplace to jump 50 points or more, certainly in 2004 when I was diagnosed!)
I see a lot about HypOtension, where people’s BP drops on standing but not much about HypERtension where BP raises on standing. Has anyone else’s POTS developed into NMH (Neurally Mediated HypERtension)?
Regards
Barbara
(UK)
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Head & Neck Injury (June 2002); Mild Concussion; Post Concussion Syndrome; Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS); Peripheral Vestibular Dysfunction; Mild Radiculopathy & Small Fibre Neuropathy (right leg & foot resp.); Partially Empty Sella Oct 2002 (worse by Oct 2004); Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD); 3mm Cerebellar Ectopia (Chiari 0); Cranio-cervical Instability (CCI) with Posterior Gliding (PG) & Cranial Settling (CS); Brain Compression; Retroflexed Odontoid; Stretched/Elongated Brainstem; Ehlers Danlos (EDS) type 111; Osteoarthritis; Arrhythmias (Bigeminy and Trigeminy). . . and now Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Mineral (Mg,Mn,Cu,Zn,Selenium), CoEnzymeQ10 & Vitamin (C,D,B3,B12) Deficiencies!