Dysautonomia

Dysautonomia is a disorder of the Autonomic Nervous system. The way that I like to describe it to people in laymans terms is I tell them that everything that works automatically on your body (like blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, temperature, digestion, etc) doesn't work automatically on mine.

Basically it's my sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system fighting all the time. That's your fight and flight response like you get when your scared. You've heard of epinephrine, right? Well there's nor-epinephrine too and dopamine and some other steroids and they're all out of whack in someone with dysautonomia and it causes some pretty crazy symptoms.

There are several different subtypes of dysautonomia including: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Neurocardiogenic Syncope (NCS), Orthostatic Hypotension (OH), Orthostatic Intolerance (OI), Pure Autonomic Failure (PAF), and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). Though there are several different types they are all primarily treated similarly with a high salt diet, adequate hydration, and different medications. Right now they believe I have PAF or Pure Autonomic Failure.

Here's a list (provided by www.dinet.org) of some of the symptoms that someone with dysautonomia may experience at any givgen time:

• Symptoms presumed to be related to cerebral hypoperfusion:**
• Lightheadedness  77.6 % (Grubb, 2000)
• Fainting or near fainting 60.5% of patients report near fainting (Grubb, 2000)
• Generalized weakness 50% (Low et al.)
  
• Symptoms presumed to be related to autonomic overactivity include the following:**
• Palpitations 75% (Grubb, 2000)
• Tremulousness 37.5% (Low, Opffer-Gehrking, Textor, Benarroch, Shen, Schondorf, Suarez & Rummans, 1995)
• Shortness of breath 27.6 % (Grubb, 2000)
• Chest discomfort and/or pain 24.3 % (Grubb, 2000)
  
• Sudomotor symptoms include the following:**
• Loss of sweating 5.3 % (Low et al.)
• Excessive sweating 9.2 % (Robertson, 2000)
  Loss of sweating and excessive sweating are more common in patients with elevated norepinephrine levels (Thieben, Sandroni, Sletten, Benrud-Larson, Fealey, Vernino, Lennon, Shen & Low, 2007).
  
• Symptoms that may reflect dysautonomia:**
• Delayed gastric emptying 23.7% of patients report gastrointestinal complaints, including bloating (Grubb et al., 1997)
• Bloating after meals (Grubb et al., 1997)
• Nausea 38.8% (Robertson, 2000)
• Vomiting 8.6% (Thieben et al., 2007)
• Abdominal pain  15.1% (Thieben et al., 2007)
• Diarrhea 17.8% (Jacob & Biaggioni, 1999) (sometimes with alternating constipation)
• Constipation 15.1% (Thieben et al., 2007)
• Bladder dysfunction 9.2% (Thieben et al., 2007) (this may include Polyuria(Jacob & Biaggioni, 1999) (excessive urination)
• Pupillary dysfunction 3.3% (Thieben et al., 2007) Pupillary dysfunction may or may not be responsible for some other reported symptoms, such as: Blurred Vision (Grubb, 2000) and Tunnel vision (Low et al.).
  
• Generalized Complaint symptoms:**
• Fatigue 48% (Grubb, 2000) (which can be disabling) 
• Sleep disorders 31.6% (Low et al.) (can cause unrefreshing sleep and an increased need for sleep)
• Headache/migraine 27.6% (Grubb, 2000)
• Myofascial pain 15.8% (Thieben et al., 2007) (characterized by regional muscle pain accompanied by trigger points)
• Neuropathic pain 3% (Thieben et al., 2007)
  
• Other symptoms reported in research that are not categorized above include:
• Dizziness (Grubb, 2000)
• Tachycardia(Grubb, 2000)
• Exercise intolerance (Grubb, 2000)
• Clamminess (Grubb, 2000)
• Anxiety (Grubb, 2000)
• Flushing (Grubb, 2000)
• Postprandial hypotension (Grubb, 2000) (low blood pressure after meals) 
• Blood pooling in limbs (Grubb, 2000) (can make legs feel heavy and appear mottled and purple in color) 
• Intolerance to heat (Grubb & Karas, 1999)
• Feeling cold all over (Grubb & Karas, 1999)
• Low blood pressure upon standing (Grubb, Kosinski, Boehm & Kip, 1997) (Some physicians feel orthostatic hypotension is a separate entity from POTS)
• Cognitive impairment (Grubb et al., 1997) (may include difficulties with concentration, brain fog, memory and/or word recall)
• Narrowing of upright pulse pressure (Jacob & Biaggioni, 1999)
• Cold hands (Low et al.) (and often feet & nose)
• Hypovolemia (Low et al.) (low blood volume)
• Chills (Low et al.)
• High blood pressure (Low et al.)
• Hyperventilation (Low et al.)
• Numbness or tingling sensations (Low et al.)
• Reduced pulse pressure upon standing (Low et al.)
• Low back pain (Mathias, 2000)
• Aching neck and shoulders (Mathias, 2000)
• Noise sensitivity (Stewart, 2001)
• Light Sensitivity (Stewart, 2001)
• Disequalibrium (Sandroni, Opfer-Gehrking, McPhee & Low, 1999)
  
• The above are symptoms reported by POTS researchers. Other symptoms sometimes reported by POTS patients include:
• Arrhythmias (irregular heart beats)
• Chemical sensitivities (May have multiple chemical sensitivity and can be very sensitive to medications - may only need small doses)
• Easily over-stimulated 
• Feeling full quickly
• Feeling "wired"
• Food allergies/sensitivities (some foods seem to make symptoms worse)
• Hyperreflexia
• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Loss of appetite
• Loss of sex drive
• Muscle aches and/or joint pains
• Swollen nodules/lymph nodes
• Polydipsia (excessive thirst)
• Weight loss or gain
• Feeling detached from surroundings
• Restless leg syndrome