Resource What is POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)

P.O.T.S. (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls all of the involuntary functions of your body, like breathing, blood pressure, heart beat, digestion, etc. These are the things that keep you alive, that you normally don't have to think about. When you eat a cheeseburger, you don't tell your stomach, "O.K. stomach, let's get to work and digest that cheeseburger." Your stomach does it for you, because it is controlled by your autonomic nervous system.

People with POTS have a problem with one or more parts of their autonomic nervous system. Since the autonomic nervous system is so important to good health, people with POTS can suffer from a long list of symptoms that can impact every system in the body, including the respiratory, cardiac, nervous, endocrine, reproductive and immune systems.

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