What is Dysautonomia?
Dysautonomia is the term used to describe a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system regulates functions of your body that happen automatically, such as your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion, and temperature control. Since this system regulates a large portion of the body’s functions, a variety of symptoms can be felt when it’s not working properly. Symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, fainting, chronic pain, headaches, abnormal sweating, shakiness, breathlessness, nausea, vision issues and more. There are many types of dysautonomia, but the most common are postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), inappropriate sinus tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension and neurocardiogenic syncope.
POTS: POTS patients have tachycardia (or a fast heart rate) when standing, due to inadequate blood flow in their bodies. A comprehensive health history, physical examination and tilt table test are usually used to diagnose the syndrome. During the test, the patient lays flat on a table as their heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood pressure is monitored. The table is then tilted up slowly. Normally your heart rate should increase by around 0-10 beats per minute as your body adjusts to standing up. For adults, if your heart rate increases by more than 30 beats than you’re diagnosed with POTS. For children and adolescents, the heart rate would increase by more than 40 beats per minute.
Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia: IST is diagnosed when a patient’s resting heart rate is over 100 beats per minute with an average 24-hour heart rate over 90 beats per minute.
Orthostatic Hypotension: If your blood pressure drops against gravity that is known as orthostatic hypotension. If your systolic, or the top number in your blood pressure, drops more than 20 mmHg or if the diastolic, the bottom number, drops more than 10 mmHg then you meet the criteria to be diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension.
Neurocardiogenic Syncope: Neurocardiogenic syncope (also known as vasovagal syncope) occurs when your heart rate and blood pressure drop and cause you to faint. This could be mild to severe in nature and may cause further issues, such as concussions, which are common among people with neurocardiogenic syncope. A tilt table test is also used in the diagnosis of neurocardiogenic syncope.
Dysautonomia Evaluation
Dysautonomia patients are most-typically found to have disruption in the communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the cardiovascular system. Our brains are what control our ability to shunt blood appropriately to the brain and body. If there is nothing structurally wrong with the heart or cardiovascular system, then the issue lies within the CNS.
At CFNC, our goal is to help our dysautonomia patients understand where in the CNS that dysfunction is coming from. The majority of POTS patients have dysfunction of the brainstem regions either in the midbrain or the pontomedullary areas of the brain. We can also see cortical dysfunction that causes similar symptomatology. Our job as CFNC providers is to pinpoint the direct area of dysfunction and apply therapies to improve its functionality through neuroplasticity.
We know that once we locate the dysfunction in the brain, it is only a matter of time and repetition before the neuroplasticity that is created yields long lasting changes in symptoms and functionality. While there is no cure for dysautonomia, we help our patients have a more functional, less symptomatic life!
Diagnostic Testing for Dysautonomia
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Orthostatic Autonomic Evaluation
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Tilt Table Testing
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Video-culography
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Blood Work
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Computerized Posturography
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Neuro-Timing Evaluations
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Other Lab Work as Needed
Dysautonomia Treatment
Dysautonomia treatment may include tilt table therapy, neuromodulation to activate different cranial nerves through sensory stimulation (such as the vagus nerve), eye movement exercises, vestibular rehabilitation, interactive metronome, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, nutritional counseling, cognitive exercises and more.
Through neurological rehabilitation, we are able to correct dysfunctions of the nervous system to greatly decrease or eliminate symptoms. Our goal is to find the root cause of your symptoms, not mask them, and create positive changes in the brain, leaving you with little to no symptoms and back to living a normal, healthy life.
Common Treatment Methods for Dysautonomia
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Tilt Table Therapy
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Orthostatic Retraining
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Neurological Rehabilitation
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Neuromodulation
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Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
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Nutritional Counseling
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Individualized Supplementation
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Red Light Therapy
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Eye Movement Therapy
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Peripheral Nerve Stimulation
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Bemer Therapy
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Chiropractic Adjustments
