Ideas to consider

[Eliza and Jordan]

Hey guys,

Here’s some things that have been popping through my head lately:

Low blood pressure-high adrenaline
There appears to be a link between these two that doctors are missing. We see a lot of reports about stress which leads to high adrenaline and then from there you get high blood pressure.
I personally appear to fit a lot of the symptom markers for high adrenaline according to one doctor who researched ADHD kids and discovered that they in fact just had really high adrenaline, and did better on beta blockers instead of the usual amphetamines.

My mother’s side is full of high adrenaline. I believe her adrenaline levels are so high it causes her sleep paralysis. She has sleep paralysis, and as a result of it she often believes there is some terrible person poisoning her in her sleep. She is prone to violent mood swings, and seemingly little things tick her off into a full on rampage. She was hospitalized for a week once due to extremely low blood pressure. If high stress leads to high blood pressure, it’s certainly not happening in her case, nor is it happening in my case or in the case of my EDSer boyfriend.

Growing up as a child, I had extremely low blood pressure coupled with mood swings. As a middle schooler and high schooler, I would often stay up late, 2am despite having to wake up 4 hours later, running and pacing in my room. My elbows hyperextend, I am physically weak compared to my peers. Just last year, my roommate and I were on a quest to get fit. Not only did she manage to do more pushups than me despite not working out her upper body, she also made gains significantly faster. I’ve always had this problem with being physically weak. Despite being among the average sized girls, I would consistently place last in all the phys ed tests in middle school. This is compared to chubbier kids, and other girls, my friends, who were just as lazy as myself?

I take some of that back. All of the stress-pacing and stress-jumping has resulted in remarkably powerful legs. The only muscular part of me.

Does high adrenaline cause muscle deterioration? Does chronic high adrenaline result in low blood pressure over time?

The next idea to consider:
Hot dog! I’ve met a lot of EDSers in my life, but only one was diagnosed.
This condition is incredibly common!
I’m pretty sure I have not met 2000 people by the time I was a sophomore in high school, but by then at least three of my peers had EDS. None of us knew it then however.
1 girl dislocates just walking. She has no gag reflex. She broke a bone once and didn’t feel it. She can move nearly all of her joints out of place at will. Her mother’s line prides itself on its ease at giving birth. Their hips open up very easily according to this one friend.
Another girl gets migraines from gluten (low intracranial thing going on perhaps?). She had to have surgery on her knees as a 2nd grader. Her sister is allergic to nearly everything and was born with messed up eyes ( one eyes was significantly weaker than the other). Both girls appear to have hormone problems. My friend is overweight despite not being a heavy eater (this changed when she went GF though). Her sister has abnormally large, well, she’s only fourteen and she’s getting leered at by grown men.
Then there was that one classmate of mine that was constantly in crutches though she didn’t appear to have anything broken.

Finally:
Is there a link between EDS and autism?
There is definitely a food allergy thing going on there.

[Dr. Diana]

Some great points! We can be “surgically precise” when we talk about having too much adrenaline. You can have your catecholamine levels checked (usually done supine and vertical) and most of “us” will have high levels of epinephrine. In hyperadrenergic POTS (what I was diagnosed with), levels of norepi can climb 10-100 times normal levels. Yikes. And ABSOLUTELY, joint hypermobility/EDS is certainly not rare — once you know what to look for! I estimate one in ten or so have this condition. Many of us get angry at our doctors for not recognizing it, but honestly, I missed it in myself the first time through! I was used to the exaggerated cases as displayed in medical textbooks. Most doctors remember the pictures, but not “the Beighton Scale”. 😉 Efforts for awareness continue! Oh, and YES, I certainly believe there is a relationship to autism. Absolutely. Thanks for your great thoughts!

[Eliza and Jordan]

I’m noticing another small trend with people who have chronic arthritis. They have fast, fast livers. That is, they can process medication extremely quickly.

The other thing I’ve heard that some do very well on low carb diets. Are not carbs processed by the liver?
Is there a relationship between the ability to process medication quickly and the effectiveness of a low carb diet?

How would I begin to explore this relationship?

[Author]

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