Fixing Your Autonomic Function in Long Covid | With Dr Boon Lim (Film 1) — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00sorry for the radio silence the last
- 0:02month or two i have been rather busy
- 0:04writing a book anyway uh last week i had
- 0:07the great fortune to have a long chat
- 0:09with consultant cardiologist and
- 0:11electrophysiologist dr boon lim who is
- 0:13clinical lead for the imperial syncope
- 0:15units at hammersmith hospital if you've
- 0:18got a question about dysautonomia and
- 0:20tilt tests you really couldn't find
- 0:22anyone better to ask there's absolutely
- 0:25loads to talk about on the subject so
- 0:26i'm going to break it up into a trilogy
- 0:28of three films uh in this first film
- 0:31we're going to talk about dysautonomia
- 0:33which long-covered symptoms it can be
- 0:34responsible for how dr lim treats it in
- 0:36his clinic and what the hell is going on
- 0:39when we wake up in the middle of the
- 0:40night with a racing heart in the next
- 0:42film we dive into the fascinating world
- 0:44of tilt tests and how they give us a
- 0:46window into the physiology of
- 0:48dysautonomia what's actually involved in
- 0:50having one what can you learn from the
- 0:52results and do you actually need one to
- 0:54be able to get a handle on dysautonomia
- 0:57in the third film we're going to talk
- 0:58about hrv
- 1:00why it's so relevant for long haulers
- 1:02what we can do to improve it and what it
- 1:04means in terms of managing our symptoms
- 1:06and possibly even aiding recovery so
- 1:09could we just start with something
- 1:11really simple
- 1:12and that is to describe what
- 1:14dysautonomia is in simple terms so
- 1:17dysautonomia is a term that
- 1:19describes
- 1:21a disorder or dysfunction of the
- 1:23autonomic nervous system and i guess the
- 1:25two ways of thinking about it your
- 1:26autonomic nervous system is that bit of
- 1:28the nervous system that controls all the
- 1:30activities we don't consciously think
- 1:32about subconscious or unconscious
- 1:34control things like heart rate
- 1:36peristalsis blood pressure regulation
- 1:39temperature regulation
- 1:41and these things are normally
- 1:43automatically regulated quite finely so
- 1:47it generally isn't much of an issue now
- 1:50any one of us including those who don't
- 1:51have long cobait can have a dysautonomic
- 1:55uh profile for example
- 1:57uh after you've had a lot of alcohol say
- 2:00on a night out for your birthday you
- 2:02wake up the next morning you haven't had
- 2:03covet you haven't had a virus and you
- 2:05can feel
- 2:06a little bit rough and this is where
- 2:08things like the the kind of aura ring or
- 2:10your apple watch might tell you your
- 2:12readiness score or whatever that score
- 2:15is is a bit low
- 2:16and and so the autonomic numb system i
- 2:19don't want to
- 2:21imbue too much uh if you like illness or
- 2:25a a
- 2:26feeling that this is something that is
- 2:28an all-or-nothing phenomena i.e
- 2:30long-covered dysautonomia screwed for
- 2:33life
- 2:34it is something that that
- 2:36on a daily basis and sometimes even on a
- 2:39minute by minute basis will fluctuate
- 2:41and sometimes when it fluctuates in an
- 2:43exaggerated manner you can call that
- 2:45transient dysautonomia so my view is
- 2:48that dysautonomia is a
- 2:50is a fairly normal process that can hit
- 2:53any one of us even in the absence of a
- 2:55viral illness
- 2:56for some amount of time when there is a
- 2:59particular trigger and a susceptibility
- 3:01and of course what
- 3:02the viral illness does whether it's long
- 3:04corbett or glandular fever is it can
- 3:06then provoke a worsening earnings or an
- 3:10exaggerated
- 3:11autonomic uh dysfunction or autonomic
- 3:15nervous system
- 3:17that activates in in a way that causes a
- 3:19whole consolidation of symptoms and i'm
- 3:21sure we'll expand on that shortly
- 3:23um
- 3:25so i mean this is interesting because my
- 3:27feeling is that
- 3:29dysautonomia is
- 3:31or dysautonomia as a consequence of long
- 3:33covid
- 3:34is not something that we're necessarily
- 3:36going to be stuck with forever because
- 3:37my own experience of it and other other
- 3:38people i've seen is that it does
- 3:40fluctuate and there may be days where
- 3:42actually i'm quite tolerant and i can do
- 3:44all sorts of things on other days i
- 3:45couldn't do one of the things that david
- 3:47petrino
- 3:48uh said on twitter recently which i
- 3:50agreed with because that's my experience
- 3:52too is
- 3:53that there's almost this clunking that
- 3:55happens between
- 3:57okay function and then suddenly bang
- 3:59sympathetic nervous system activation
- 4:01and then suddenly clunk and it can clunk
- 4:03back again i don't know if that's
- 4:05sort of
- 4:06rather than a smooth transition between
- 4:09parasympathetic and sympathetic there
- 4:10does seem to be this dial that kind of
- 4:14does that is that something you've
- 4:16witnessed too is does that sort of ring
- 4:18a bell for you
- 4:19so i've witnessed on um
- 4:21both both states really and there are
- 4:24some patients who recognize to the hour
- 4:26or to the day that the symptoms started
- 4:29and started to get worse and oftentimes
- 4:32it is on the background of a significant
- 4:36stressful event and now when i say
- 4:38stress i don't mean mental stress it
- 4:40could be any challenge so for example if
- 4:43you think you're recovering from kobe
- 4:44three weeks have passed and you think
- 4:45you've got over it you go for a 5k run
- 4:49that could be the tipping point
- 4:51following which you trigger some kind of
- 4:53clunking as you say or a transition step
- 4:56which is quite a large step in your
- 4:58autonomic state and thereafter you find
- 5:00it very difficult to recover for a week
- 5:02or two after that 5k run and if you try
- 5:04another 5k run after two weeks you step
- 5:07down even
- 5:08greater so i think a lot of what you've
- 5:10discussed in your previous webinars jess
- 5:13including the pacing the recovery taking
- 5:15it nice and slow
- 5:16is part of
- 5:17um an intuitive body listening exercise
- 5:21that we need to learn and i think this
- 5:22is one aspect that we
- 5:25um don't do very well or people with
- 5:27long covered don't don't tend to have
- 5:30that intraceptive ability to recognize
- 5:33when they're at the incipient or
- 5:36threshold stage of clunking because the
- 5:38clunking doesn't happen just like that
- 5:41you need a few risk factors and
- 5:44certain preconditions to push you to the
- 5:46state at which you can clunk
- 5:49and then it happens you do something
- 5:51which it may not seem stupid at the time
- 5:53like going for a 5k run when you are
- 5:55typically going for 10k runs prior to
- 5:58corbett may not seem like such a big
- 6:00deal especially if you wake up fresh and
- 6:02alert good night sleep sunday morning
- 6:04well hydrated you do it and then you and
- 6:07then you you step down
- 6:09and then you kick yourself so
- 6:11uh so yeah yes is the answer but i also
- 6:13want to qualify that by saying
- 6:15that the other option is also possible
- 6:17that some people
- 6:19have a gradual deterioration in the
- 6:22autonomic nervous system function and i
- 6:24i particularly
- 6:26like what you've done previously in your
- 6:28previous webinars when you talked about
- 6:30the impact of previous trauma or
- 6:32the kind of personalities that may be
- 6:34susceptible to
- 6:35uh having a relapsing remitting long
- 6:38corvette experience because in my own
- 6:41view and experience this is something
- 6:42that comes across time and time again
- 6:44the likes of you jess who wants to push
- 6:46it skiing whilst recovering from long
- 6:49coven and seeing how far you can push it
- 6:51uh and i think he got away with it uh
- 6:53quite nicely but other people may not
- 6:56yes yeah and for me i wouldn't have got
- 6:58away with it had i not added a set of
- 7:00other behaviors to compensate
- 7:02for the activity i was doing and
- 7:04modifying the activity the way i was
- 7:05doing it so short you know 20 seconds
- 7:08skiing stop breathe ski a little bit
- 7:10further stop breathe and even only an
- 7:13hour in total in the day as opposed to
- 7:15what i would normally have done is just
- 7:16cane it from the top of the mountains to
- 7:18both the mountains that needs to be that
- 7:20needs to be repeated jess you need to
- 7:22tell people that you're not skiing eight
- 7:25hours like you used to yeah your skin
- 7:27for 20 seconds and just tell me about
- 7:29the breath again because that's
- 7:30phenomenally interesting
- 7:33so
- 7:34so basically what i try and do is i i
- 7:36mean skiing naturally for skiing with
- 7:38the group you would tend to ski
- 7:40a distance and then stop and wait ski
- 7:41distance top and weights and i was
- 7:43simply shortening those distances and in
- 7:45the points of time when i wasn't skiing
- 7:47i would very consciously slow my breath
- 7:49down and do coherence breathing you know
- 7:51five seconds in five seconds out
- 7:54and make sure i was doing that in every
- 7:56one two three four minute period i was
- 7:58waiting between each skiing segment and
- 7:59on every lift i was getting on suddenly
- 8:02now you're sitting down for five ten
- 8:04fifteen minutes on my entire lift i
- 8:06would just sit there and just focus on
- 8:07my breathing and try to not get sucked
- 8:09into the conversation that was happening
- 8:11around me but just focus on the
- 8:12breathing so again i was just calming
- 8:14things down
- 8:16in compensation for the fact that what i
- 8:17was doing was
- 8:19very stimulatory otherwise
- 8:21yeah so i i fully fully agree that this
- 8:24is the way that people should pace when
- 8:25they get back to exercise and
- 8:28um to your point earlier on when you ask
- 8:30me about clunking you don't always have
- 8:32to clunk in the wrong way in terms of
- 8:34sympathetic activation what you've
- 8:35demonstrated there is you can clunk the
- 8:38other way so you can you can you can
- 8:41automatically reset or actually
- 8:43recalibrate your parasympathetic nervous
- 8:45system and increase the expression of
- 8:47the vagus nerve
- 8:48by doing exactly what you've done a five
- 8:50second breath in and then a five second
- 8:53breath out um and on a continuous basis
- 8:55if you can breathe like this
- 8:56particularly through your nose and into
- 8:58your belly
- 8:59so this is belly breathing or
- 9:01diaphragmatic breathing i think it's a
- 9:03particularly
- 9:05useful way to activate the biggest and
- 9:07dial down the sympathetic nerve system
- 9:08so don't ever underestimate in fact it
- 9:11is crucial to the recovery of patients
- 9:13with long coverage to really focus on
- 9:15breath particularly nasal belly
- 9:17breathing and i think that's why some
- 9:19long covert recovery groups or exercises
- 9:22with either respiratory physio
- 9:24or even say
- 9:26the english national opera program ian
- 9:28o'brief have had some success
- 9:31some yoga
- 9:33some yoga studios have opened up rest
- 9:35recovery
- 9:36programs such as susie bowl and there
- 9:38are several other yoga programs and the
- 9:41focus for all these programs
- 9:43is centered around breath work i mean
- 9:46there are other things including pacing
- 9:48and important holistic strategies which
- 9:50i fully believe in but breath work is
- 9:52the central tenet by which you can
- 9:54reduce the expression of the
- 9:55parasympathetic surface nervous system
- 9:58so so another example of pacing where i
- 10:00do try and activate a clunk in the other
- 10:02direction is even sitting at home and
- 10:04working at my desk i'll do
- 10:07perhaps 40 minutes if i'm really lucky i
- 10:09might manage to stretch for about 40
- 10:10minutes at my desk and i notice at that
- 10:13point that my cognitive is weird i start
- 10:15to feel that my ability to process
- 10:17information becomes compromised i can go
- 10:19and lie down i put on my alpha stim so
- 10:21electrical stimulation
- 10:22um theory of a you know slows that long
- 10:25wave stimulation something like that and
- 10:27i'll lie down on the sofa i'll close my
- 10:29eyes trying to remove as much as
- 10:30possible do the coherence breathing and
- 10:32what i find often happens really quickly
- 10:34is i will trigger
- 10:36a series of very strong aggressive yawns
- 10:39that come through and after that
- 10:4110 minute period my eyes are watering
- 10:43the horns are attacking and that feels
- 10:45like it's a clunk back in the other
- 10:47direction back towards a parasympathetic
- 10:49once i've done that the heart rate's
- 10:51about 10 15 bpm lower
- 10:54and my head is clear and i can think
- 10:55again and i've got another 40 minutes
- 10:57clear and that's how i manage my working
- 10:59days so so can can can i can i share
- 11:02that um one of the things that i've
- 11:04always wanted to study in greater detail
- 11:07is the physiology of yawning
- 11:09because oh my goodness do we see people
- 11:11gone a lot during tilt particularly i
- 11:13mean if we have time we can talk about
- 11:15the tilt data which i can demonstrate
- 11:17your own data but
- 11:18the yawning that occurs in people who
- 11:21are not otherwise sleepy but the
- 11:23opposite people who are adrenergically
- 11:25driven or sympathetic nerve system
- 11:27overdrive
- 11:28is so marked sometimes
- 11:30and in the context of that of that
- 11:32sympathetic overdrive they start yawning
- 11:34and i think yawning is a very very
- 11:37complex physiological process
- 11:39and um
- 11:41you know the dr seuss sleep book if
- 11:43you've ever come across it is a great
- 11:45way to get your kids to sleep because i
- 11:47guarantee you by the time you're halfway
- 11:48through the book both you and your kid
- 11:51will have yawn at least five or
- 11:53a dozen times
- 11:55because it is that kind of looking at
- 11:57somebody else's yawn can trigger yawning
- 12:00you but in this particular case on the
- 12:02tilt lab and certainly what you've just
- 12:04described i think yawning triggers a
- 12:06physiological reset if you like i can't
- 12:09really uh prove it yet but it's
- 12:12something it's one of the things that i
- 12:13have observed as an interesting thing
- 12:16that's seen during tilt during synthetic
- 12:18there's an argument i read somewhere
- 12:20about how actually the process of
- 12:21yawning creates pressure on the vagus
- 12:23nerve so it's a
- 12:25it's a sort of an action that the body
- 12:26takes to try and push the body back into
- 12:29a parasympathetic state that was what i
- 12:31read and it seems to make some sort of
- 12:33sense right yeah so it makes sense but
- 12:35you know if you think about respiratory
- 12:37sinus arrhythmia
- 12:39the maximum variability in in the heart
- 12:42rate profile which is your respiratory
- 12:44sinus erythema and that's what hrv is
- 12:46heart rate variability
- 12:47is the extent that your heart rate
- 12:49varies between the nader the trough and
- 12:51the peak over a respiratory cycle so if
- 12:54you take a deep breath in
- 12:56and you take a deep breath out and you
- 12:58monitor your pulse either in your neck
- 13:00or your
- 13:01wrist then your audience can do that now
- 13:03particularly if you follow a slow
- 13:05cadence which is said to be a coherent
- 13:07breathing pattern the ideal breath as
- 13:09james nestor says in his book breath
- 13:12which is there which is there
- 13:15is is a phenomenal
- 13:18way to activate your maximum hrv
- 13:21training and this this we can show very
- 13:23clearly on tools like heart math and so
- 13:26this is something that
- 13:28actually with the bio feedback that you
- 13:30get and your regulation of your heart
- 13:32rate variability
- 13:33can help to activate the parasympathetic
- 13:35nervous system but it's often thought
- 13:37that it's due to the mechanisms not only
- 13:39pressure in the vegas but
- 13:41intrathoracic pressure expansion and
- 13:44contraction lung volume expansion and
- 13:46contraction
- 13:47and therefore the volume of blood in
- 13:50your heart expanding and contracting and
- 13:53they are very sensitive both
- 13:54chemoreceptors and baroreceptors but i
- 13:56think for yawning
- 13:58it's not mainly the chemoreceptor
- 14:00because it would take too quick for for
- 14:02you to change your co2 levels or oxygen
- 14:04levels
- 14:05but more like immediate stretch because
- 14:08the stretch receptor is quick
- 14:10and the stretch receptors are available
- 14:12for action and reaction in the lung
- 14:15in the aortic arch and in the bare
- 14:17reflex which are here and that can
- 14:19can be activated just like that so
- 14:21yawning resets those stretch receptors
- 14:24that then give a very complex feedback
- 14:26loop into the primitive brain
- 14:28which then alters the outputs which are
- 14:30vagus
- 14:32and sympathetic chain and depending on
- 14:34how much your vegas is pulsing up
- 14:37and down together with the sympathetic
- 14:39chain that dictates your hrv
- 14:43so it's it's complex it's wonderfully
- 14:46complex and i would say it's so so uh
- 14:49nice to see this physiology every day in
- 14:51in in the tilt lab uh it's just that um
- 14:55the too many variables
- 14:58when your sympathetic nervous system is
- 14:59yo-yoing and activating the yawn doesn't
- 15:01really touch it all that much so trying
- 15:03to demonstrate a clear delta is a bit
- 15:06more difficult so we need i guess more
- 15:08controlled conditions and it's always
- 15:10been one of my dreams to do a doctor
- 15:13sleep book tilt table
- 15:14test control in a normal subject to see
- 15:17what the physiological impact of the ion
- 15:19is
- 15:21absolutely fascinating let's say you've
- 15:23got two types of patients who present to
- 15:24you one like me who presents with this
- 15:27automobile but not necessarily pots and
- 15:29another who presents like one of those
- 15:31other tilt um
- 15:33tests you showed which have definite
- 15:36pots as well as dysautonomia how do you
- 15:38go about treating them what are the
- 15:40first things that you advise in terms of
- 15:42behavior and what do you
- 15:44is there anything that you go down in
- 15:46terms of medication
- 15:47so i i would suggest that
- 15:50there
- 15:51is the
- 15:52ability to
- 15:54deploy a whole lot of conservative
- 15:56strategies so this is my kind of website
- 15:58which is a moment charitably run and
- 16:01kind of created on a sunday morning with
- 16:03my co-conspirators
- 16:06pro bono um but uh there's one
- 16:09particular autonomic dysfunction sheet
- 16:11that you could you could download freely
- 16:14from from the website
- 16:15and um
- 16:17it really
- 16:18talks about top tips for improving
- 16:20autonomic dysfunction in long covet
- 16:22so
- 16:23i i don't like to start off with drugs
- 16:25and that much i will say i like to start
- 16:27off with a very clear diagnosis and
- 16:31i don't want to pretend that there
- 16:33aren't other multiple diagnosis or
- 16:36mechanisms for long covet that you've
- 16:39covered very much and very well in your
- 16:41other talks
- 16:43but if
- 16:45if the patient has got worsening
- 16:46symptoms on standing and improving on
- 16:49sitting
- 16:50and
- 16:51and that is a prevailing feature the
- 16:54palpitations and everything else we
- 16:55talked about
- 16:56then i'm going to for a moment forget
- 16:58about mast cell immune activation viral
- 17:01debris
- 17:02uh platelets and all this other stuff
- 17:04i'm gonna forget about it because if
- 17:06those were true
- 17:08then when you stand up or you sit down
- 17:10those mechanisms would still be at play
- 17:12so this is specific for the patient
- 17:14cohort that i'm talking about autonomic
- 17:16dysfunction and i recognize that this is
- 17:18a
- 17:19cohort that obviously i'm biased in my
- 17:21experience because when they are
- 17:22referred for people are suspecting it so
- 17:26it tends to be
- 17:27manifested in the tilt data
- 17:29but that being said
- 17:31that caveat being said i would say that
- 17:34fluid increase
- 17:35because most of these people have got
- 17:37low or low normal blood pressures
- 17:40uh but
- 17:41with the exception of the the tilts that
- 17:43i showed you okay yeah yeah
- 17:45if if you are going to be doing an
- 17:47activity as particularly exercising
- 17:49consider salt intake or consider an
- 17:52isotonic effervescent tablet
- 17:54which is the isotonic isotabs that you
- 17:58can put and it fizzes like a baroque
- 17:59dust not broken something like noon
- 18:01precision 1500 ors these kind of tablets
- 18:05consider wearing compression stockings
- 18:07which should be lower limb compression
- 18:08to the thigh or to the waist or abdomen
- 18:12and
- 18:12if you like there are consumer grade
- 18:14stockings sporting stockings that are
- 18:17pretty compressive such as skins
- 18:19uh but then there are
- 18:21there are other stockings which are
- 18:22medical grades such as bauerfeind
- 18:24sigvaris garment and these are stockings
- 18:27that you could wear
- 18:28because if you think about the
- 18:30physiology you're pooling blood right in
- 18:32your lower limbs and what you'd like to
- 18:33do is squeeze externally so the
- 18:35stockings give you some external squeeze
- 18:38and then the internal compression is
- 18:40quite helpful where
- 18:43you learn to perform isometric counter
- 18:45pressure exercises i don't know if
- 18:46you've ever done this js but just
- 18:48squeezing your glutes your quadriceps
- 18:50and your calves can immediately give you
- 18:53that boost so if you're if you're
- 18:54flagging a bit now jazz try and just
- 18:56squeeze your buttocks squeeze your
- 18:59halves and your and your quads you see
- 19:01i'm bouncing in my chair yeah and just
- 19:03by squeezing sometimes you see a
- 19:05sharpening because what you're doing is
- 19:07you're returning the blood
- 19:09parked away in the huge reservoirs which
- 19:11are your lower limbs
- 19:12back into the heart so that could work
- 19:15and then
- 19:16this is the bit that you already talked
- 19:18about and i'm glad you you you raised
- 19:20this not me slowing your breath down to
- 19:22five or six seconds
- 19:24uh in a sinusoidal pattern because then
- 19:26you activate or you clunk into vegas
- 19:29yeah um and then
- 19:31my view is there are two
- 19:33approaches one is the bottom-up approach
- 19:36where you engage and entrain physiology
- 19:38in my mind the autonomic nervous system
- 19:40facets
- 19:41of which there we said peristalsis blood
- 19:44pressure breathing rate temperature
- 19:46sweating
- 19:47capillary dilatation
- 19:49a lot of that is not under your control
- 19:51apart from one which is your breath
- 19:54so the breath i think is a very very
- 19:57nice shortcut or the only way in roads
- 20:00into the autonomic nervous system
- 20:03to which we can apply our own effort so
- 20:06physiologically we take control of our
- 20:08breath and we train it to the perfect
- 20:10breath
- 20:11which is five or six seconds for most
- 20:13people
- 20:14and that gives you more vagal expression
- 20:16but the other component that expresses
- 20:19higher
- 20:20positive autonomic balance and in
- 20:23particular more vegas less sympathetic
- 20:25is actually coupling that breath with a
- 20:27positive emotion or thought
- 20:29and the easiest to elicit would be
- 20:32something like gratitude but compassion
- 20:34love forgiveness these are also other
- 20:37emotions that you could you could bring
- 20:39into play as you're focusing on the
- 20:40breath
- 20:41and the focus on the breath without
- 20:44ideally any distracting thoughts about
- 20:46what's happening in the future or how
- 20:48the day is going to be or
- 20:50the past thoughts of anxiety is the way
- 20:54i think the best way to try and recenter
- 20:57your autonomic nervous system by
- 20:59yourself and this means living in the
- 21:01present moment and what better way as
- 21:03you know
- 21:04to be in the present moment than to just
- 21:06focus on the air the healing
- 21:08kind of nurturing air
- 21:11uh coming in through your nose into the
- 21:13deep recesses of the lungs in a six
- 21:15second breath and coming out
- 21:17so
- 21:18so that is my bias
- 21:20in terms of treatment um
- 21:23which is a more conservative
- 21:25step-wise not step-wise but a
- 21:27conservative
- 21:28lot of treatment
- 21:30uh there are pharmacological agents that
- 21:33i will use in some patients and in new
- 21:35jersey you hadn't
- 21:37if you were my patient i guess you came
- 21:39for a tilt but you weren't referred to
- 21:40me but if you were my patient i would
- 21:42ask you
- 21:43how you're getting along in day to day
- 21:44life
- 21:45and i would see you are you as a highly
- 21:48functioning patient when you want to be
- 21:50or when you're not misbehaving like
- 21:51going to thor park all day
- 21:53or skiing without a break yeah and this
- 21:56kind of behaviors that are necessary for
- 21:59enjoyment of life
- 22:00sometimes
- 22:02uh are should be forgiven by yourself
- 22:05yeah yeah so you you've gone to thought
- 22:07part don't regret a crash that you're
- 22:09experiencing now
- 22:10in fact embrace the fact that you
- 22:12enjoyed top part yesterday and today
- 22:14you'll sleep it off or rest or recover
- 22:17drink lots of fluids and you know what
- 22:19you'll be better tomorrow yeah but you
- 22:21have to forgive yourself and this is
- 22:23also part of that state that we talked
- 22:25about the psychological state that oh
- 22:27damn it i did too much and now i'm back
- 22:29on
- 22:30that is also a very autonomically
- 22:32uh unhelpful state of mind to be in
- 22:36completely agreed
- 22:37yeah the mindset actually affects the
- 22:39autonomic a lot more than we think
- 22:41so um
- 22:43that that being said jess for for you if
- 22:46you had done your fluid to salt your
- 22:48compression your mindset you didn't go
- 22:50to the top part every other day
- 22:52and you were still symptomatic then i
- 22:53would give you a drug to augment your
- 22:55blood pressure something like mediadrin
- 22:57which is an alpha blocker which is um
- 23:00something that vasoconstricts
- 23:02your splenic or the
- 23:04blood vessels in your gut or the
- 23:06peripheral vascular system which is your
- 23:09lower limbs it would constrict that
- 23:11return blood to your heart and improve
- 23:12blood volume improve blood pressure or
- 23:15fluid your cortisone which is a
- 23:17mineralocorticoid which serves to
- 23:19reabsorb more salt at the level of your
- 23:20kidney and again expanding your plasma
- 23:23volume and not allowing this push or
- 23:25this pull gravitational pull to occur
- 23:28so that that is what i would i would
- 23:30suggest um in terms of the guidance from
- 23:34tilt testing because the tilt testing
- 23:36will give me an idea whether you're low
- 23:38or high blood pressure if you're high
- 23:39blood pressure i wouldn't give you
- 23:40midogram if your high blood pressure is
- 23:43the dominant symptom and
- 23:45not dominant symptom but the dominant
- 23:47physiology together with palpitations as
- 23:49your dominant symptom or maybe chest
- 23:51pain i might give you something to slow
- 23:53your heart rate down
- 23:55so this is then guided by the tilt
- 23:57because i don't want to give you
- 23:58mediadrin your blood pressure's already
- 24:00high i give you propranolol which is a
- 24:02non-selective beta blocker in the
- 24:04loadout something like 10 to 20
- 24:05milligrams twice a day
- 24:07or i give you evaporating
- 24:09if i'm concerned that i don't want to
- 24:11push your blood pressure down because
- 24:13propane oil can reduce your blood
- 24:14pressure a bit but generally propanol
- 24:16and ivabridine
- 24:19and vapordine by the way is 2.5
- 24:21milligrams twice a day
- 24:22these are the drugs that we would give
- 24:24for patients predominantly suffering
- 24:26with tachycardia on standing
- 24:28but it can also have a very calming
- 24:31effect and then very interestingly uh
- 24:34well interesting for me is that those
- 24:35patients who have palpitations at night
- 24:38and i'm seeing quite a lot of them who
- 24:40describe pop stations in a day
- 24:42but also palpitations at night you might
- 24:44ask me why
- 24:46when you're lying flat do you activate
- 24:48the autonomic nervous system there's no
- 24:50reason for it right because you're not
- 24:51being tilted and you're not sleepwalking
- 24:54and the answer is
- 24:55not the answer but in my anecdotal
- 24:58experience i think there is a degree of
- 25:01overlap between the mast cell story so
- 25:04as i said i'm open to other theories
- 25:06yeah
- 25:07and in in the in the realm of mass cell
- 25:11degranulation or histamine intolerance
- 25:14what we get is a spontaneous
- 25:17release of histamines at night
- 25:20which may be triggered by a dream or may
- 25:22be triggered by just
- 25:25the ongoing insensible losses at night
- 25:27in sensible losses means when you
- 25:28produce urine you sweat under the sheets
- 25:30you're breathing you're not drinking
- 25:32anymore at night and so the blood
- 25:33pressure tends to fall triggers an
- 25:35autonomic nervous system surge whilst
- 25:38getting dehydrated mast cells suddenly
- 25:40degranulate because it's reached a
- 25:42critical point because one of the
- 25:43sensitizes of mast cells is a heightened
- 25:46sympathetic nervous system
- 25:48then
- 25:49you suddenly get a pooling like this is
- 25:51a clunk occurrence because it's not like
- 25:54gradually getting tax cut you wake up
- 25:57and your heart is racing those patients
- 25:59can do very well with a nocturnal
- 26:01antihistamine or even bd antihistamines
- 26:04and i don't mind a h1 in h2 blocker and
- 26:07i do prescribe that this in my practice
- 26:09as well with that specific syndrome
- 26:11profile but also if you get a rash and
- 26:13hives and all these other more typical
- 26:15features of mast cells i hope you found
- 26:17that discussion as enlightening and
- 26:19fascinating as i did
- 26:21next up is going to be the film on tilt
- 26:23tests where we go through my results as
- 26:26well as
- 26:27a healthy control and two other long
- 26:29haulers and see exactly what's going on
- 26:31in terms of malfunctioning physiology
- 26:34until next time
- 26:44you
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