{"id":8986,"date":"2025-11-05T22:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=8986"},"modified":"2025-11-05T22:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:36:13","slug":"what-is-pots-student-shares-personal-health-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/11\/05\/what-is-pots-student-shares-personal-health-story\/","title":{"rendered":"What is POTS? Student shares personal health story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month<\/a>, which raises awareness about disorders affecting the autonomic nervous system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these chronic illnesses is Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome<\/a> or POTS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

POTS is a relatively unknown disorder to both the people who suffer from it and the doctors trying to diagnose it. It is a chronic illness that increases your heart rate and can lead to fainting spells. Simple tasks, such as standing up or being in the heat, can have severe consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I actually have to have a handicap plaque in my car because I can’t walk far distances to class in the heat without passing out,” said Anne Kathryn Smith, a senator for the College of Health Sciences. “With POTS, a lot of the time you have intolerances to extreme temperatures. If I get hot, I will pass out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although increased heart rate and fainting are the most common symptoms, many more can appear, especially if the condition is severe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEALTH NEWS: Trojans prioritize their mental health during midterm season<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not just heart rate and blood pressure,” Smith said. “It has a lot of other symptoms like appetite loss, weight loss, losing your hair loss and migraines. It affects everything in your body.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith encourages those diagnosed and others in the community to actively participate in raising awareness about POTS and dysautonomia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re not alone. So many of us are getting that diagnosis,” Smith said. “Do your research, reach out to people, and there’s always going to be some kind of answer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, one to three million Americans suffer from POTS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month, which raises awareness about disorders affecting the autonomic nervous system. <\/p>\n

One of these chronic illnesses is Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or POTS.<\/p>\n

POTS is a relatively unknown disorder to both the people who suffer from it and the doctors trying to diagnose it. It is…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[148,2677,51,45],"topics":[7,17],"class_list":["post-8986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-college-of-health-and-human-services","tag-pots","tag-troy","tag-troy-university","topics-college-of-health-and-human-services","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8986"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9001,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8986\/revisions\/9001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8986"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=8986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}