MEDICAL MATTERS

  • Medical Matters features questions asked by Members of the ME Association on health-related topics.
  • Dr Charles Shepherd and the ME Association's other advisers answer these questions by sharing their expert knowledge.
  • Medical Matters is based on the popular ‘Ask the Doctor’ series in ME Essential magazine.
  • It is a free resource that supplements the detailed information contained in the full range of literature that can be found in the website shop.

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Questions in the Category: Dysautonomia

Management: Fitness

ME Essential Winter 2021

Can I ask what the advice is on heart health for people with ME? As most of us can’t exercise, how do we maintain a healthy cardiovascular system? Is a healthy diet enough?

Symptom: Palpitations

ME Essential Winter 2021

Like many people with ME I have occasional palpitations. Does this mean that I might have some form of underlying heart disease? Or is this just another part of having ME? And are there any drug treatments that might be helpful?

Dysautonomia: Orthostatic Intolerance (OI) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS)

ME Essential Summer 2021

I keep reading about orthostatic intolerance, PoTS and postural hypotension and how they can all be symptoms of ME/CFS. But what do all these medical terms mean? What is going wrong? And are all these symptoms and syndromes related to each other?

Symptom: Dizziness

ME Essential Spring 2020

I often feel light-headed and unsteady on my feet, and have done so since my ME started about five years ago after a nasty infection. But I’ve recently been having ‘dizzy spells’ where I feel faint, sickly and much more unbalanced. These attacks come on without warning and then settle down. Is this part of ME?

Symptom: Cold Extremities

ME Essential Winter 2020

Like most people with ME/CFS I‘m very sensitive to changes in temperature and find the cold winter weather is very difficult to deal with. So do you have any tips on keeping warm when it gets really cold?

Symptom: Fainting

ME Essential Autumn 2017

Like most people with ME I have problems with balance and find it difficult to sustain any sort of activity that involves prolonged standing. I sometimes feel faint when standing up but have never actually fainted until recently. This has now happened on three occasions – all for no apparent reason. Fortunately, someone has always been with me and I haven’t injured myself. I usually recover very quickly but don’t normally feel as though I’m ‘back to normal’ till the next day. My GP took my pulse and blood pressure (which was low) and decided it was probably ‘just anther part of having ME’. I have been given some self-help advice about keeping well hydrated with water and not standing up too quickly but I’m concerned that there may be something else going wrong in addition to my ME. What would you advise?

Charles Shepherd

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