On June 29, Dr. Diana Driscoll, the Clinical Director of POTS Care, PLLC, announced a specialized treatment plan for so-called “long COVID” patients at the POTS Care treatment center in Colleyville, Texas.
Long COVID patients experience residual symptoms, such as dizziness and an increased heart rate, long after the COVID-19 virus has left their bodies.
According to POTS Care, people experiencing long COVID are often diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a disorder affecting the nervous system.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has referred to long COVID as “Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19,” or PASC, saying, “The magnitude of the problem is not fully known.”
In February, the National Institute of Health announced plans to study long COVID. Although no official data has been released by the NIH detailing the rate of COVID-related POTS, statistics from the Office for National Statistics in Britain found that over 18% of study participants between the ages of 25 and 34 reported still having symptoms 12 weeks after confirmed infection with COVID-19.
Dr. Driscoll said that post-viral POTS has been “misunderstood, dismissed, or mistreated” in the past. “COVID is yet another virus that can set off an abnormal inflammatory reaction in some patients,” she said.
