How to Deep Breathe

Today's Blog Post is all about How to Deep Breathe! This week's Tuesday's Tip was that Deep diaphragmatic breathing can help lower adrenaline! I know this probably sounds crazy, and I didn't believe it at first either😅 But it's true! I want to provide a bit of background information in order to explain how it works! So, if you haven't already read yesterday's blog post about the Autonomic Nervous System, I would suggest reading it first! I will provide a brief summary about it in this post, but I think the full post will give helpful background information:) Either way, I like understanding how things work, because then I'm more likely to do them haha😅 Are you the same way??  

The Autonomic Nervous System & POTS: 

As mentioned before, I will talk more about the Autonomic Nervous System in future courses, but here's a brief summary! The Autonomic Nervous System controls most of the things that happen automatically in your body like heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, etc. The Autonomic Nervous System has 2 divisions, The first is the Sympathetic or "fight and flight" which is your stress response and the second is the Parasympathetic or the "rest and digest" part 🩺 With most POTS patients, standing up triggers a stress response! This is problematic because our body is supposed to be in "rest & digest" or the Parasympathetic response most of the time😬 A lot of medications and interventions for POTS focus on lowering the Sympathetic Nervous System or the Stress Response💊 And a lot of mindfulness exercises like deep breathing, meditation and other behaviors you can learn in therapy help trigger the Parasympathetic Nervous System which will then lower your adrenaline levels! 🧘🏽‍♀️ While this isn't a replacement for other treatments, they can be a very helpful addition! 

Deep Breathing: 

Deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing is one of the things that triggers the Parasympathetic/Rest and Digest system and helps lower adrenaline! There is a lot of research that shows this and I have personally noticed a difference in my symptoms when I take the time to deep breathe! 🧘🏽‍♀️ So, how does it work? There are a lot of different recommendations for techniques, but I'll just share some of the ones that have worked for me😊

1) You can deep breathe in any position, but I think if you are trying to lower your heart rate laying down or sitting down would be best!

2) Make sure you are using your diaphragm to breathe! You can put one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen to see how you are breathing, but you want to make sure you are breathing with your abdomen instead of your chest:) 

3) Breathe in (Inhale) through your nose for anywhere from 2-6 seconds and make sure your abdomen is expanding while you breathe in

4) Hold the breath for anywhere from 2-6 seconds

5) Breathe out (Exhale) your mouth for 5-10 seconds

6) Repeat this until you feel your symptoms lessen:) It might be stressful and hard at first, especially if you have been hyperventilating! But I promise it helps! And you can find a lot of helpful videos online about how to do it! 

The Autonomic Nervous System

In order to understand POTS, it's important to understand the Autonomic Nervous System! I am already working on some educational courses for the future that will include more in depth information and details, and I am really looking forward to teaching those courses! In the meantime/until those are ready, I wanted to share some basic introductory information that should hopefully make it easier to understand some of the content I am sharing😊 I hope it helps! 💙

What is the Autonomic Nervous System? 

Your Nervous System includes your brain, spinal cord and all the nerves in your body! The Nervous System has 2 major branches that are important to understand: The Somatic Nervous System and the Autonomic Nervous System. 

1) The Somatic Nervous System is in charge of voluntary/conscious movement and activities, like walking, moving your finger, talking, etc. Even if you are not aware of all the intricacies involved in the action, you are consciously choosing to initiate the action. 

2) The Autonomic Nervous System is in charge of all of your unconscious/involuntary activities occurring in your body like heart rate, blood pressure digestion, breathing, etc. These actions occur automatically, without you having to think about initiating the action. 

 

What are the branches of the Autonomic Nervous System?  

The Autonomic Nervous System affects every organ and body system in the body! It has 2 major divisions that are important to understand: The Sympathetic Division and the Parasympathetic Division

1) The Sympathetic Division of the Autonomic Nervous System is also known as the "Fight or Flight" or Stress Response. I will explain more about this in my course, but the Sympathetic Divisions is associated with adrenaline and prepares the body for survival. Symptoms associated with the Sympathetic response are increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased breathing, dilated pupils, increased blood to the leg muscles and decreased blood flow to the gut/digestive tract. 

2) The Parasympathetic Division of the Autonomic Nervous System is also know as the "Rest & Digest" Response and is the opposite of the Stress Response. When the body is not in Fight or Flight, it is in Rest & Digest, and this is where it should be most of the time. It is associated with a lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, slower breathing and increased blood to the digestive tract.  

 

How is this related to POTS & Dysautonomia? 

Dysautonomia occurs when the Autonomic Nervous System is not functioning properly. This can be related to an injury or defect in the Autonomic Nervous System itself. Or it can be related to an imbalance between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System. 

POTS is a specific kind of Dysautonomia, and while some patients may have a problem with their Autonomic Nervous System this is not as common. Most POTS patients have the second kind of Dysautonomia where there is an imbalance between the 2 divisions. Most POTS patients go into "Fight or Flight" when they stand up because gravity causes the stress response associated with increased adrenaline. This phenomenon was a major focus of my thesis and I will go into much more detail in my courses. In the meantime, I hope this information has helped! 

Navigating POTS Pinterest Account

Today's Blog Post is all about the Official Launch of the Navigating POTS Pinterest Account!  I have been working on this for awhile, so I'm happy I can finally share it with you! I wanted to dedicate a blog post to the account so I could explain some of the specific features it includes and how it is organized, I hope this makes it easier to use💙 Here is what I want to highlight: 

1) My Profile: My profile contains the company name, my name, the account name, the logo, and a description about the company! It also contains a link to the Navigating POTS Blog (purple) and a way to contact me through my email (green).  

2) Created vs. Saved Pins: When you first go to the Navigating POTS Profile, you will see a list of all the pins I have created. Most of these are similar to the pins on Instagram & Facebook. It will have the same photo, but a shorter description and fewer hashtags due to Pinterest limitations. If you want to see the full description, checkout the Navigating POTS Instagram or Facebook page! :) 

The Navigating POTS Pinterest Page will be easier to use if you click on "Saved" instead of "Created" right under the profile and above the pins:) 

Once you are viewing the Saved pins, you should see more organization with various boards! It should look like this: 

3) Organization of Saved Pins: 

The light blue boards are full of pins that I have created! They are organized based on the kind of pin/post and they include all of the daily posts like Motivational Monday, Tuesday's Tip, etc. as well as others! Some of the boards also have sections within them as well:) Every time I post on Facebook or Instagram, I will also make sure to add it to the Pinterest Account, that way you can see it across multiple platforms! It's also for people who only have 1 kind of account, I hope this can be a helpful way to share information! 

The dark blue boards are full of pins that I have not created! I have been using Pinterest for a long time and had a personal POTS board full of pins that I have saved over the years:) They included information about POTS, various comorbidities, Dysautonomia, Chronic Illness and helpful tips and tricks! Since they were so helpful for me, I wanted to share this information with you as well! :) As I find more helpful pins, I will keep updating these boards as well! These pins will only be available through my Pinterest, so even if you are following another Navigating POTS account, it is still worth it to follow the Pinterest account as well! 

4) Other Helpful Information 

Thursday's Thing Pins: All of my Thursday's Thing posts feature a specific item I use that has helped my POTS:) Each Thursday's Thing pin will have a link to the specific Amazon product I like, I hope it's helpful in case you would like to try it out for yourself! 

Funny Friday Pins: All of my Funny Friday posts feature a specific meme that I found and thought was funny:) As previously mentioned, I am not the creator of these Funny Friday memes, I am only sharing them. Under the Funny Friday board there is a section for my posts where I share the meme and then a section with the original meme, this is where you can see the original creator. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the account! I hope it's helpful💙

My Comorbidities (Other Diagnoses)

What is a Comorbidity? 

A comorbidity is a coexisting health condition, or having 2 or more simultaneous medical diagnoses🩺 Specifically, it is often used to describe multiple diagnoses that are commonly seen together. 

Examples: 

For example, you can have heart disease and multiple other comorbidities including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes🩸Or you can have allergies with a comorbidity of asthma 🩻 Anxiety and depression are also common comorbidities💊

POTS & Comorbidites:

Since POTS is a syndrome, or a group of symptoms and not an specific disease, many patients have multiple other underlying problems and illnesses that contribute to their POTS! We call these comorbidites:) I will explain more about this in my POTS Courses! And as I start introducing my other diagnoses I will refer to them as comorbidities, and now you know what that means! 😊 

My Comorbidites: 

Each week I will post about a new comoribidity and then I will share it on this list:) I will start with my first one tomorrow! 

1) EDS (Ehler-Danlos Syndrome)

2) MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome)

3) Dysautonomia

          4) Orthostatic Intolerance  

 

POTS Subtypes:  

a. Hyperadrenergic POTS

                    b. Hypovolemic POTS

                    c. Neuropathic POTS 

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Vitassium & Vitassium Club

This Blog Post is all about today's Salty Saturday post: Vitassium! :) 

What is Vitassium? 

Vitassium is a salt supplement, or "medical food" created by the company Salt Stick. It was specifically created for patients with chronic illnesses like POTS, EDS, Vasovagal Syncope, Dysautonomia and other similar conditions! In fact, it is an official sponsor of Dysautonomia International!

As a patient, I have noticed a difference in some of my symptoms when I am using it and in my research I learned that increasing salt helps increase blood volume. This is helpful because symptoms like dizziness, lightheadedness, pre-syncope (almost passing out) and headaches can be related to decreased blood flow to the brain, especially when standing; and research has shown that increasing salt and fluids can improve some of these symptoms. This is why most researchers recommend POTS patients increase their salt intake to 10grams a day, which is a lot! 

How should I use Vitassium? 

The Vitassium website makes a really good point: "Remember that 'salt' which often represents NaCl (or sodium chloride), and 'sodium' are not the same thing. It's important for your doctor to clarify whether their recommendation is for salt intake or sodium intake." As with any of my recommendations, I am just sharing things that have helped me as a patient, and what I learned from research. I'm not prescribing you something as a provider! Please make sure you consult your Doctor or Provider about how much salt or sodium to take daily and how to best achieve that goal. Once you have done that, you can refer to Salt Stick's Detailed Usage Guide.

What is in Vitassium Capsules? 

Vitassium has Sodium and Potassium in it, which are both important electrolytes. Sodium is often referred to by its chemical symbol from the Periodic Table of Elements: Na or Na+. And Potassium is often referred to as K or K+ for the same reason. According to the bottle, the serving size is 2 capsules and includes 500mg Na (Sodium) and 100mg K (Sodium). So, each capsule has 250mg of Sodium and 50mg of Potassium and 4 capsules is equal to 1 gram of Sodium. 

So why does Vitassium have Potassium and Salt in it? Under Frequently Asked Questions, Salt Stick replies: "Vitassium contains potassium to assist in regulating the balance of water between plasma (blood) and within the cell.  In scientific terms, potassium is critical in the body for a variety of biochemical processes. One important function of potassium is to regulate the balance of water between plasma (blood) and within the cell. Providing sufficient building blocks for the body to self-regulate can be important. Vitassium contains an appropriate amount of potassium to assist in that regard. In general, excess potassium is excreted in the urine. " 

What about the Vitassium Fast Chews? 

The Vitassium Fast Chews also have a serving size of 2 tablets and it includes 125mg sodium and 25mg potassium. The Vitassium Chews come in 2 flavors, Grape and Fruit Punch. 

Where can I buy Vitassium? 

-Amazon: You can buy it once or sign up for the Subscribe and Save and decide how often you want it sent to you. 

-SaltStick.com: You can buy it directly from Salt Stick, the company who makes it. This is helpful, especially when Amazon is out of stock. 

How can I save money when buying Vitassium? JOIN THE VITASSIUM CLUB!!! 

I'm a member and it's so great! :) You can sign up for the Vitassium Club for FREE if you have any chronic condition that it was created for! So, POTS, Dysautonomia, EDS, Vasovagal Syncope, etc. 

Being a part of the Vitassium Club provides you with the following: 

-Free shipping on orders over $50

-Up to 25% off of every order

-Primary access to new products

-Direct access to special promotions

-Primary access to new medical literature