In this video Dr. Diane Mueller, a chronic‑illness specialist, explains that postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and other forms of dysautonomia are usually the result of multiple, interacting underlying factors rather than a single cause. She outlines the major categories that can drive the chronic inflammation and nervous‑system dysregulation seen in POTS: hidden viral infections (long‑COVID, Epstein‑Barr, HSV, parvovirus), Lyme‑family infections and co‑infections (Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia), parasites, gastrointestinal disturbances such as small‑intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), environmental toxins (mold, glyphosate from herbicide exposure), and nutrient imbalances (low sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium). Dr. Mueller stresses that chronic inflammation is a symptom, not a root cause, and that comprehensive testing is essential to identify which of these contributors are present for each patient. She notes that because the condition is typically multifactorial, addressing only one factor may only partially improve symptoms. Finally, she discusses the need to re‑regulate a dysregulated nervous system, mentioning established approaches like meditation, Primal Trust, and EMDR, and teases an upcoming video where she will reveal her current favorite treatment for nervous‑system regulation.
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Hey everybody, Dr. Diane Mueller, your chronic illness expert. Welcome back to my channel. We're talking about POTS today, postural orthopedic tachycardia syndrome, or any sort of dysautonomia. And in this particular video, I'm going to talk about some of the root causes of this. So many times people are just focusing on these things that maybe, maybe cover up symptoms, or we can get hyper-focused on getting the POTS diagnosis because you go on to Dr. Grok or to Dr. Google or to Dr. Whatever online and you wind up hearing and hearing that you have dysautonomia or POTS. And while there are things that sometimes can mitigate those symptoms somewhat, there is nothing that works as strongly as getting to the root cause. So make sure you do subscribe to this channel because in this video I'm going to talk about some of the root causes, and then a next video that's coming up after this, I talk about my new favorite treatment for really helping re-regulate the nervous system. So you want to subscribe so you don't miss out on that. Now, root causes. So anytime we have a dysautonomia situation, right, anytime we are having a scenario where we do something like change posturally and we have our blood pressure go way down instead of up, because our blood pressure is supposed to go up a little bit when we change, when we go from sitting to standing, for example. So we have a dysfunction, right, of our nervous system and the way it's connecting to our circulatory system. And this dysfunction doesn't just happen for no reason. So it can happen due to things like chronic stress on the nervous system. Chronic inflammation that impacts the nervous system. But remember, chronic inflammation is never a root cause, right? The root cause is what is causing the chronic inflammation. So even if I say, oh well, there can be an inflammatory mechanism that is leading to your nervous system to be chronically inflamed, we then have to take a step back and say, well, what kinds of things would do that? So this is when we get into things like our chronic hidden viral infections, right? Our long-haul COVID situations, our chronic Epstein-Barr situations, our hidden HSV situations, right? So any of these chronic situations. Another virus that I do see come up surprisingly for a lot of people when I test is parvovirus, and I see that can be contributing to people's dysautonomia in my practice. So all of those can play a role. Absolutely. Mold toxins, other environmental toxins. Definitely get pretty worried about the glyphosates. Glyphosates, if you do not know, are one of the things that is found in Roundup. So anything that is genetically modified tends to have a lot of glyphosates. But I've seen glyphosate levels go up in people that are eating really clean, 100% GMO, 100% organic. And we test and it's like, where's their glyphosate coming from? And then they learn that, oh, their apartment complex just sprayed for pesticides and they used Roundup— or not, um, not pesticides, for weeds— and they used Roundup. And so with that, that spraying, if you live in a community, maybe the HOA takes care of some of the common areas and you walk through those areas, maybe they've used Roundup, right? Or you know, a situation where you're in apartments and the apartment complex is using it. So sometimes you can make really good choices, but the glyphosates still end up in your body. So obviously we got to test, not guess. So we don't know for sure until we test. But those types of environmental toxins, we absolutely want to consider as playing a role. Beyond that, we absolutely want to consider things like other chronic infections, our Lyme family, our Babesia, our Bartonella, or Ehrlichia. Anything in that chronic hidden infection world. I do see that parasites play a role. Oftentimes GI disturbances can play a role as well. So things like SIBO, for example, which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, that can play a role. Nutrient disturbances, not having the right levels of calcium, of potassium, of magnesium, of sodium. So a lot of times people, when they switch to a healthy diet, are very sodium deficient because they're not eating processed foods and they don't tend to salt their food because they think salt's bad. But if you don't have enough salt, you don't know sodium, you can actually— that can contribute to POTS as well. Usually it's a multifactorial reason for this, so it can be confusing because you can try something and like one thing and be like, well, that didn't work. And it's possible that one thing is maybe 10% of the root cause but you have another thing at 10% and another thing at 20% and another thing at 30%. So it really is all of these things coming together that are really leading to the POTS, and it's typically not one thing. So if you try one thing, the tricky thing is you want to make sure that you are testing for all these causes so that you understand all of them. So because as a single root cause, that might not be enough to really switch the POTS symptoms, right? One of the biggest things though that I find that all of these things oftentimes do is they dysregulate the nervous system. And a dysregulated nervous system is not always going to lead to something like POTS. It could lead to other things, but for many people it can lead to POTS. So with this dysregulated nervous system, we want to re-regulate it. And a lot of people are talking about things like meditation right? So there's a lot of great programs out there. Primal Trust, I love. EMDR, I, I love. So there's a lot of great things out there. But in the next video, I'm going to introduce you to my current new favorite thing for regulating the nervous system, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about why it works and how it could work for you. So make sure you do subscribe so you get that upcoming video. All right, everybody, I'll see you soon.
