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Orthostatic Intolerance & POTS

Self Care Check-List

Your Basic Daily Care List

  • Drink 2 to 3L water a day
  • Eat enough salt
  • Wear Compression Garments

Step 1:

Plan Your Day

Planning your day and making sure to follow the simple steps below is an easy way reduce the risk of symptoms.

Avoid Physical Triggers: 

  • Standing up quickly
  • Standing still for long periods
  • High temperatures
  • Hot showers
  • Climbing long flights of stairs
  • Holding arms up for a long time

Food and Drinks:

  • Aim for 2 to 3L water a day
  • Eat enough salt
  • Eat smaller frequent meals
  • Choose proteins over high carb or
    sugar meals
  • Avoid Caffeine and energy drinks
  • Avoid Allergens
  • Avoid Alcohol

Avoid Psychological Triggers: 

  • Work stress
  • Social or home stress
  • POTS can feel like anxiety but is not caused by anxiety
  • POTS is not caused by anxiety

Step 2:
Implement Short Term Strategies

How to fight against symptoms when they show up.

 

  • Start mornings in bed: sit, drink 1-2 cups fluid, take meds before getting up.
  • Get up in stages: From lying to sitting in bed – sit on edge of bed – stand up.
  • Before standing or sitting up – pump your feet, squeeze and release your thighs, squeeze and release your buttocks, squeeze your hands into a fist.
  • Sit for routine static tasks: washing your hair, brushing teeth, doing makeup, food preparation.
  • Take deep belly breaths to help circulation. Inhale against resistance (like sucking air through a straw)
  • Cool your skin with a cold damp cloth or a mister
  • Carry a fan
  • Finish showers with cool water.

Long-Term Prevention 

Physical:

  • Get up and move around frequently – to decrease blood pooling
  • Compression. Abdominal and upper thigh compression is most effective – Abdominal binder, high waisted shorts, leggings, tights. (20 – 40 mmHg ideal) Choose garments that are comfortable to wear – they don’t work if left in the wardrobe.
  • Place 10 to 15 cm blocks under the head of the bed, this helps your body to retain fluid overnight.
  • Practice deep abdominal breathing several times a day. In through the nose and slowly out via the mouth.
  • Appropriate exercise. Aerobic plus leg and core strength.
    Start in reclined position e.g. Pilates, Swimming, recumbent bike. Progress gradually under guidance from a POTS aware physiotherapist or Exercise physiologist.

Food and Drinks:

  • Drink lots of fluid and electrolytes (Aim for 3L a day)
  • Avoid sugary drinks
  • 8 to 10g salt/day (including all salt intake) is recommended IF you have been diagnosed with POTS/OI and you do not have issues with high blood pressure. Do not exceed 10g/day without medical advice
  • Eat frequent small meals. (Avoid high sugar/simple Carb foods)

Psychological: 

  • Reduce activity/change schedule
  • Pace/plan your activities
  • Get more sleep
  • Be kind to yourself
  • Ask for help
  • Practice relaxation – mindfulness,
    diaphragmatic breathing, meditation

What you can do when you are…

...standing up:

  • Keep circulation going – Wriggle your toes, shift weight from side to side, calf raises, fidget, march on the spot.
  • Push blood back up to your heart – cross  and squeeze legs together, squeeze your buttocks, stand with one leg on a chair, squat.
  • Support upper body – lean on the kitchen bench, lean on a shopping trolly.

.…sitting down:

  • Sit with knees pulled up to your chest.
  • Prop your feet up.
  • Lean forward with hands or elbows on knees OR lean back and use the backrest.

.…lying down:

  • Lie with feet propped up on a chair or against a wall.
  • Avoid lying still for prolonged periods unless sleeping.