POTS

How long into treatment should I notice an improvement in my pots. Ive been treating almost 4 months and although I can stand longer, my heart rate still goes up by 35-40 bpm when standing. When can I expect this to go away. I have lyme and bart but don't know which one is causing it.

You'll hate this reply, but the time it takes for POTS to go away varies a lot by individual!

For some people, antimicrobial treatment gets their bodies in better shape and the POTS resolves, but for others, there's damage to the autonomic nervous system that takes a long time to heal, long after any active infection has been addressed.

When you say "treatment," do you mean antimicrobial treatment (like pharma or herbal protocols for infections) or do you meant POTS treatment (salt, drugs, compression garments, recumbent physical therapy, limbic system retraining, other ANS therapies, etc.)? Have any of the POTS treatments been helpful for you?

I had POTS for years, but it has resolved for the most part. For me, antimicrobial treatment didn't make a difference. At some points I needed to use a wheelchair in public, and carried a pulse oximeter with me, even at home, so I could be sure to lie down before passing out. I was hospitalized once when my heart rate was shooting up to 155 any time I sat up and was around 110 lying down; this happened when I had been taking Alka-Seltzer Gold for herxing and knocked my electrolytes out of balance. I know how miserable, scary, and disabling POTS can be!

Eventually I got an appointment with a dysautonomia specialist (these are VERY few and far between) who recommended salt (1.5 tsp of Himalayan salt per day), compression stockings, and proper hydration (your weight divided by 2, in ounces; and not more unless you are sweating heavily!). She said that some patients are helped by the drugs, but about the same number are helped by placebos, so I didn't bother with those, since my body tends to react strongly and unpleasantly to anything I put into it. I do know people who found drugs helpful, though. Around the same time, I started DNRS limbic system retraining program, which made a huge difference in my overall symptoms, and began treating MCAS (which can exacerbate dysautonomia) with a low-histamine diet, quercetin, and curcumin.

POTS is almost never an issue now unless I become very dehydrated or overheated, and occasionally with extreme barometric pressure drops. And when it happens at those times, it's very mild compared to how it used to be.