Updated on April 12, 2024
They’re young and athletic. They’re also ill with a condition called POTS. – The Washington Post
Excerpt from the Washington Post. Read the full article.
“Kaleigh Levine was running drills in the gym with her lacrosse team at Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, when everything turned black.
“The coach wanted me to get back in the line, but I couldn’t see,” she remembered.
Her vision returned after a few minutes, but several months and a half-dozen medical specialists later, the 20-year-old goalie was diagnosed with a mysterious condition known as POTS.
First described more than 150 years ago, the syndrome has proliferated since the
coronavirus pandemic. Before 2020, 1 million to 3 million people suffered from POTS in the United States,
researchers estimate. Precise numbers are difficult to come by because the condition encompasses a spectrum of symptoms, and many people have still never heard of it.
Recent studies suggest 2 to 14 percent of people infected with the coronavirus may go on to develop POTS.
The syndrome tends to strike suddenly, leaving previously healthy people unable to function, with no clear cause. In recent years, doctors specializing in the condition have noticed a curious and disproportionate subset of patients: young, highly trained athletes who are female.
Short for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, POTS is diagnosed when a patient’s heart rate goes berserk, jumping way above normal when changing position from lying down to standing…”
