If your teen has been diagnosed with POTS, or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, you already know how quickly it can disrupt a young person’s life.

One day they’re active, involved, and full of energy. Then suddenly, standing up makes their heart race. Getting through an entire school day feels impossible. Dizziness, migraines, fatigue, and brain fog begin interfering with activities that used to be part of everyday life.

Families are often given strategies like increasing fluids and salt, wearing compression garments, or changing positions more slowly. Those tools can absolutely be helpful, but many parents are still left wondering why their child’s system is struggling so much in the first place.

Meanwhile, their teen may be missing school, stepping away from sports and activities they love, and becoming increasingly frustrated, anxious, or isolated.

One important piece of the POTS picture is the nervous system, particularly the part responsible for automatically regulating functions like heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and circulation.

For families who want to better understand that connection, it can be worth taking a closer look at how well the nervous system is functioning and adapting.

Tommi’s Story

Tommi was an incredibly active 17 year old. She rode horses, cheered, earned strong grades, and had a full life ahead of her. Then POTS changed nearly everything.

Her mom described significant fatigue that kept Tommi in bed for much of the day, along with migraines, brain fog, tachycardia, low blood pressure, chest pain, insomnia, anxiety, and depression. School became extremely difficult, and at her worst, she struggled to walk to the bathroom without passing out.

Her family pursued the traditional approaches recommended for POTS, but when Tommi continued struggling, they kept looking for additional ways to support her.

That search eventually led them to Neurologically Focused Chiropractic Care.

Over time, Tommi’s family reported significant improvements. She was able to return to cheering and horseback riding, go on to college with a scholarship, and ultimately became interested in pursuing nervous system focused chiropractic herself.

Tommi’s experience is her own, and every person with POTS has a different health history and response to care. But her story highlights an important piece of the POTS conversation that families may not have explored yet: the autonomic nervous system.

POTS and the Autonomic Nervous System

POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, which is why it falls under the larger category of dysautonomia.

The autonomic nervous system manages many of the functions your body performs automatically, including heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, temperature regulation, and circulation.

In POTS, the body has difficulty appropriately adjusting to changes in position. When someone moves from lying or sitting to standing, their heart rate can increase significantly as the body works to maintain blood flow.

But POTS can involve much more than a racing heart. Teens and young adults may also experience dizziness, fatigue, brain fog, headaches or migraines, digestive difficulties, exercise intolerance, temperature sensitivity, sleep problems, and other symptoms.

This is not simply a teen who needs to “push through it.” Their autonomic nervous system is having difficulty regulating functions that should happen automatically.

Where the Vagus Nerve Fits In

The vagus nerve is an important part of the parasympathetic nervous system. It travels from the brainstem through the body and plays a role in regulating heart rate, digestion, inflammation, and the body’s ability to shift into a calmer, more restorative state.

In someone experiencing dysautonomia, the balance between the sympathetic “fight or flight” side of the nervous system and the parasympathetic “rest and regulate” side may not be functioning as efficiently as it should.

At Generations Chiropractic, this is one reason we pay close attention to nervous system regulation and adaptability.

When we talk about subluxation, we are not simply talking about a bone being “out of place.” We are looking at patterns of neurological stress and tension within the neurospinal system that may interfere with the body’s ability to adapt and regulate efficiently.

For someone already struggling with dysautonomia, understanding those patterns can provide another useful piece of the overall picture.

The “Perfect Storm” Behind POTS

POTS does not always have one clear cause. Instead, its onset may be associated with a combination of different factors and stressors.

This is similar to what we often call the child’s Perfect Storm, where different layers of stress accumulate until the nervous system has a harder time adapting.

Those factors can include:

• Birth trauma and early physical stress
• Viruses and infections, with some cases of POTS developing following an illness
• Other health conditions, including connective tissue and immune related conditions that can sometimes occur alongside POTS
• Chronic physical or emotional stress, which can place additional demands on the autonomic nervous system
• Postural and physical stress, particularly as kids spend more time sitting, studying, and looking down at phones and devices

Not every person with POTS will have the same combination of factors. That’s why understanding the individual’s entire health history is so important.

Rather than asking only, “What diagnosis does this symptom fit?” we also want to ask, “What has this nervous system experienced, and how well is it adapting now?”

Adding Another Layer to POTS Care

Traditional POTS management may include hydration, increased sodium when medically appropriate, compression garments, exercise or physical therapy programs, medication, and other strategies based on the individual’s needs.

Those tools can be incredibly important and should be discussed with the appropriate medical providers.

At Generations Chiropractic, our role is different.

We are not diagnosing or treating POTS itself. Instead, we assess nervous system function to determine whether patterns of neurological stress and dysregulation may be another piece worth addressing alongside a teen’s existing medical care.

This is not about choosing between cardiology and chiropractic, or between medical management and nervous system support.

For many families, it can be both.

A Neurological Look at Your Teen’s Health

At Generations Chiropractic, INSiGHT Scans help us objectively assess patterns within the nervous system.

Our scanning technology includes sEMG, neuroTHERMAL scanning, and HRV. Together, these scans give us information about neuromuscular tension, autonomic patterns, and the nervous system’s overall adaptability.

We combine those findings with a detailed health history to better understand what that individual’s nervous system has experienced and how it is functioning today.

If care is appropriate, gentle and specific chiropractic adjustments are used to support the neurospinal system and its ability to regulate and adapt. We can then repeat scans over time to objectively track changes rather than relying only on symptoms.

Alongside care, the foundations recommended by a teen’s medical team still matter. Hydration, appropriate electrolytes and nutrition, quality sleep, and carefully progressed movement can all be important parts of supporting someone with POTS.

Your Teen Deserves to Be Heard

POTS can be incredibly disruptive, especially for a teenager who wants nothing more than to get back to school, friends, sports, and everyday life.

Tommi’s story is one family’s experience, and it is not a guarantee of what another person will experience with chiropractic care. But it is also a reminder that when a child or teen is struggling, it can be valuable to keep asking questions and looking at the whole picture.

If your teen or young adult has been diagnosed with POTS or is struggling with symptoms of dysautonomia, there may be value in taking a closer look at how their nervous system is functioning.

At Generations Chiropractic, our goal is to work alongside your child’s existing healthcare team while assessing and supporting this often overlooked piece of their health.

If you’d like to learn more, contact Generations Chiropractic to schedule a neurological evaluation and take a closer look at how your teen’s nervous system is functioning.

If you are not local to us, check out the PX Docs directory to find a PX Docs office near you.