POTS and Dysautonomia: Could Nervous System Dysregulation Be Why You’re Still Sick? | E185

🎒 Back-to-school season brings changing routines, new exposures, and added demands on the whole family. Support your family’s health this season with Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine’s Back-to-School 2026 resources.Back-to-School 2026:https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/In this Made for Health minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues exploring an important question: Why are you still sick? Why does your body seem unable to get back into a healing state?This time, he focuses on dysautonomia and POTS—Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome—conditions involving dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system, which helps regulate processes such as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, digestion, sleep, and the body's response to stress. Pasted textFor some people, the signs are dramatic. For others, they can be subtle: feeling lightheaded when standing, experiencing a racing or pounding heart seemingly out of nowhere, waking suddenly at night, struggling with brain fog, cold hands and feet, unusual skin color changes, temperature intolerance, or simply feeling significantly better after fluids, electrolytes, compression, or time spent calming the nervous system. Pasted textDr. Hartman explains why dysautonomia can easily become one more overlooked layer in complex chronic illness—and why identifying what originally disrupted the nervous system may be just as important as identifying POTS itself.Key Topics CoveredWhat dysautonomia meansWhat POTS is and how it relates to dysautonomiaThe sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systemsLightheadedness and dizziness after standingHeart racing and unexplained palpitationsBrain fog and difficulty thinkingWaking at night with a racing heartCold hands and feetChanges in skin color and circulationProblems regulating body temperatureSleep, mood, hormonal, and gastrointestinal symptomsWhy mild dysautonomia may be overlookedFluids and electrolytesCompression garmentsNervous-system regulationDysautonomia after concussion or head injuryLong COVID and post-infectious dysautonomiaLyme disease and nervous-system dysfunctionHypermobility and POTSMast Cell Activation SyndromeAutoimmune and gastrointestinal overlapWhy the patient's history can guide treatmentThe NASA Lean TestPhysical examination findings Dr. Hartman considersWhy treating the underlying trigger mattersIn This Episode, You Will Learn✅ Why POTS is only one form within the broader category of dysautonomia✅ How autonomic nervous-system dysfunction can affect much more than heart rate and blood pressure✅ Why symptoms may sometimes resemble anxiety or panic✅ Why someone can have significant autonomic symptoms without fitting a textbook presentation✅ How POTS and dysautonomia may overlap with hypermobility, mast-cell activation, mold illness, Lyme disease, autoimmune issues, gut problems, and post-infectious conditions✅ Why Dr. Hartman asks when the symptoms started and what happened around that time✅ How concussion, illness, trauma, infection, or other physiological stressors may become part of the clinical timeline✅ Why fluids, electrolytes, compression, strengthening, and nervous-system regulation may become part of an individualized approach✅ How the NASA Lean Test can help collect heart-rate and blood-pressure information over timeResources & Links:🌐 Dr. Aaron Hartman – Richmond Functional Medicine: richmondfunctionalmedicine.com🌐 LinkedIn – Dr. Aaron Hartman: Connect Here📺 YouTube – Richmond Functional Medicine: Watch Here🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School BundleMentioned in this episode:25% Off Back to School Support for ParentsBack to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with thr