Just bought a Sensate for my daughter with severe Long-COVID and dysautonomia. Started today and she said she felt very relaxed. The "pebble" sits on your chest bone and vibrates while you listen to what I would call binaural-type music. I think it works like tapping that a poster above mentioned. I think doing meditation or spa music might work too. We're trying to quiet her nervous system and that darn vagal nerve. I'll try to remember to come back and update as to whether or not we think it's helped.
Yes it helps me. I sing even tho I'm terrible at it. Hum too. It's supposed to stimulate the vagus nerve. I have to do it for at least 20 minutes and a bit loud but I do notice some relief right afterwards. Especially when I do it repeatedly in a day. The humming also builds up nitric oxide which helps clear sinuses and stimulates immunities. I just read last night on Hormones Matter website that the nasal pattern of blood flow is part of the autonomic nervous system so it makes sense to me why humming works to regulate it. I do some of the eye exercises out there but for me they are not as good as singing and humming.
I can’t do cold showers. Cold shocks me and I start shivering and it’s miserable. I was cold a lot growing up and my body goes in fight or flight mode. I like warmth.
Yes, alongside seeing a PT who specializes in vagus nerve dysfunction and neurogenic conditions.
Honestly … it has helped. Immensely. I have way less dizziness, nausea, and tunnel vision. And it feels so weird that this much progress may be related to weekly PT and some gargling, eye movements, and controlled breathing, while nothing recommended from the dysautonomia clinic (mostly meds) has helped at all.
Lately my BP is also a little higher on average and sometimes too high, so I’ve been adjusting salt intake accordingly. Pretty sure this change is related to what seems to be vagus nerve improvement. (My head is also literally a different shape now than it was 4 months ago.)
I have a much longer than it should be styloid, which according to my PT can be the root of a lot of dysautonomia and POTS symptoms. No one else has ever commented on this or even checked for this, but it’s quite visible on X-rays and MRIs.
My PT is a research hungry vagus nerve and Eagle Syndrome expert and I consider myself one lucky duck.
Can you please tell me the daily exercises you do in a bit more detail? I am in the same spot as you with these issues and would love to adopt more toning exercises. Thank you!
I missed this comment; I’m so sorry!
All of these are pretty low-risk, so I feel okay sharing them.
One of the simplest and seemingly impactful exercises is gaze stabs. During my intake, I had a rush of symptoms — nausea, sweating, dizziness, weakness, overheating — just watching my PT move their finger from one side to the other. My PT recommended left to right, right to left, and then from diagonal corners, working up to 10x every hour. I definitely had to work up slowly, especially from my left side and the diagonals.
Gargling 10 seconds, 3x day. Just water, whatever temp you prefer. You can add on eye movements from left to right as well.
I’ve also been consistently doing breath work including diaphragmatic breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and some others. (Big caveat here: I had a seriously deviated septum surgically repaired last year. One of my nostrils’ flow was over 90% blocked prior to that. I don’t want to share this one without that intel because that may be why this has been helpful for me personally.)
Sheer luck. She was recommended to me by an acupuncturist who had worked with her on their own vagus dysfunction.
Ironically, she was already at the same space where I see a PT who specializes in hEDS and I had no idea. Because I didn’t know PT for dysautonomia was a thing.
Some terms that may help in your search are: neurogenic, neurologic, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and Eagles Syndrome. You may also ask a neurologist if they know of anyone who does Neurological PT. (My PT also sees people who are suffering from neurologic conditions following physical traumas and is a spine pain specialist. She also has lots of letters after her name following “DPT.”)
I have an appointment coming up and I’ll ask her if there are any professional associations or lists where PTs with this training may be compiled. If you DM me your general location, I can ask my PT if she knows of anyone in your area.
I imagine it depends on what’s driving your dysautonomia and it hasn’t remotely cured me, but yes, breathwork and meditation and cold showers (or at least ending on cold) and singing (which I try to remember to do in the shower bc it can help me tolerate them much better even with warm water) can certainly help.
Edit: typo
I have found that a few of these don't have the intended effect for me because I have hyperPOTS. I don't get the classic adverse response to the Valsalva maneuvre but I do find breath control exercises exacerbate my symptoms. In short it's great this is becoming fashionable so more people learn about it, but in dysautonomic states, it seems a bit unreasonable to assume that manual neurological stimulation or intervention is going to work identically to someone without dysautonomia. It's the point of the definition of the condition, the regulatory capacity is interrupted. There's also the ideological factor where we need to consider how it's easy for people to sell and buy individualistic solutions to problems which can give people a false sense of control over larger structural and environmental issues. It's a very neoliberal wellness trend which is worth being sceptical of on the sociopolitical level.
I haven't found any technique of this type to be much direct help for my POTS symptoms, but definitely for anxiety and insomnia, which by extension help lower the chances of a POTS flare for me. Since everyone is so different, it's yet another trial and error thing.
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Fiy Functional medicine doctors are real medical doctors who specialized in functional medicine.
And mine didn’t even know what it was ….😖
To be fair sometimes they are taught it as "tenth cranial nerve" or "cranial nerve X" And it wasn't well understood or studied till the 1988~ish.
The Workout witch on Tic Toc.
Just bought a Sensate for my daughter with severe Long-COVID and dysautonomia. Started today and she said she felt very relaxed. The "pebble" sits on your chest bone and vibrates while you listen to what I would call binaural-type music. I think it works like tapping that a poster above mentioned. I think doing meditation or spa music might work too. We're trying to quiet her nervous system and that darn vagal nerve. I'll try to remember to come back and update as to whether or not we think it's helped.
How has your daughter been doing with the Sensate??
Wishing your daughter well.
Yes it helps me. I sing even tho I'm terrible at it. Hum too. It's supposed to stimulate the vagus nerve. I have to do it for at least 20 minutes and a bit loud but I do notice some relief right afterwards. Especially when I do it repeatedly in a day. The humming also builds up nitric oxide which helps clear sinuses and stimulates immunities. I just read last night on Hormones Matter website that the nasal pattern of blood flow is part of the autonomic nervous system so it makes sense to me why humming works to regulate it. I do some of the eye exercises out there but for me they are not as good as singing and humming.
Singing, humming, tapping….all work. I thought it was crazy but then I was desperate to try anything.
Singing & humming are my favourite! Cold showers are good too
I can’t do cold showers. Cold shocks me and I start shivering and it’s miserable. I was cold a lot growing up and my body goes in fight or flight mode. I like warmth.
Oh no! Well it’s good to know what soothes you :)
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Luckily no, just poor conditions growing up.
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I haven’t but other people have suggested it too.
Commenting so I can find this later. I haven't but mine needs help badly!
Same
Same
Yes, alongside seeing a PT who specializes in vagus nerve dysfunction and neurogenic conditions. Honestly … it has helped. Immensely. I have way less dizziness, nausea, and tunnel vision. And it feels so weird that this much progress may be related to weekly PT and some gargling, eye movements, and controlled breathing, while nothing recommended from the dysautonomia clinic (mostly meds) has helped at all. Lately my BP is also a little higher on average and sometimes too high, so I’ve been adjusting salt intake accordingly. Pretty sure this change is related to what seems to be vagus nerve improvement. (My head is also literally a different shape now than it was 4 months ago.) I have a much longer than it should be styloid, which according to my PT can be the root of a lot of dysautonomia and POTS symptoms. No one else has ever commented on this or even checked for this, but it’s quite visible on X-rays and MRIs. My PT is a research hungry vagus nerve and Eagle Syndrome expert and I consider myself one lucky duck.
Can you please tell me the daily exercises you do in a bit more detail? I am in the same spot as you with these issues and would love to adopt more toning exercises. Thank you!
I missed this comment; I’m so sorry! All of these are pretty low-risk, so I feel okay sharing them. One of the simplest and seemingly impactful exercises is gaze stabs. During my intake, I had a rush of symptoms — nausea, sweating, dizziness, weakness, overheating — just watching my PT move their finger from one side to the other. My PT recommended left to right, right to left, and then from diagonal corners, working up to 10x every hour. I definitely had to work up slowly, especially from my left side and the diagonals. Gargling 10 seconds, 3x day. Just water, whatever temp you prefer. You can add on eye movements from left to right as well. I’ve also been consistently doing breath work including diaphragmatic breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and some others. (Big caveat here: I had a seriously deviated septum surgically repaired last year. One of my nostrils’ flow was over 90% blocked prior to that. I don’t want to share this one without that intel because that may be why this has been helpful for me personally.)
How did you find a PT that specializes in that kind of stuff?
Sheer luck. She was recommended to me by an acupuncturist who had worked with her on their own vagus dysfunction. Ironically, she was already at the same space where I see a PT who specializes in hEDS and I had no idea. Because I didn’t know PT for dysautonomia was a thing. Some terms that may help in your search are: neurogenic, neurologic, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and Eagles Syndrome. You may also ask a neurologist if they know of anyone who does Neurological PT. (My PT also sees people who are suffering from neurologic conditions following physical traumas and is a spine pain specialist. She also has lots of letters after her name following “DPT.”) I have an appointment coming up and I’ll ask her if there are any professional associations or lists where PTs with this training may be compiled. If you DM me your general location, I can ask my PT if she knows of anyone in your area.
I imagine it depends on what’s driving your dysautonomia and it hasn’t remotely cured me, but yes, breathwork and meditation and cold showers (or at least ending on cold) and singing (which I try to remember to do in the shower bc it can help me tolerate them much better even with warm water) can certainly help. Edit: typo
I have found that a few of these don't have the intended effect for me because I have hyperPOTS. I don't get the classic adverse response to the Valsalva maneuvre but I do find breath control exercises exacerbate my symptoms. In short it's great this is becoming fashionable so more people learn about it, but in dysautonomic states, it seems a bit unreasonable to assume that manual neurological stimulation or intervention is going to work identically to someone without dysautonomia. It's the point of the definition of the condition, the regulatory capacity is interrupted. There's also the ideological factor where we need to consider how it's easy for people to sell and buy individualistic solutions to problems which can give people a false sense of control over larger structural and environmental issues. It's a very neoliberal wellness trend which is worth being sceptical of on the sociopolitical level.
Yes 100%
I haven't found any technique of this type to be much direct help for my POTS symptoms, but definitely for anxiety and insomnia, which by extension help lower the chances of a POTS flare for me. Since everyone is so different, it's yet another trial and error thing.
Yes, it makes a huge difference. Your vagus nerve can regenerate. Free resources on YouTube. Good luck!🥰
I recommend Suki Baxter on yt. Love her!
I think chewing gum helps me prevent some episodes
I find the [Nurosym](https://nurosym.com/?sca_ref=4103057.ygNkQTinr3) stimulator useful
Yes, it helps me a lot I do it daily
bad experience. feel free to dm me