Dr Boon Lim on Autonomic Dysfunction

my name is dr boon lim i'm a consultant cardiologist and i work at one welbeck heart health i also practice in the nhs at imperial college healthcare nhs trust based at hammersmith hospital where i'm the clinical lead for the imperial syncope unit the group of patients with long covert who come to see me have typically got a combination of palpitations shortness of breath lightheadedness and extreme fatigue or dizziness my view is that at least some of the symptoms can be explained by a syndrome which is termed autonomic dysfunction in long covered now the autonomic nervous system is that bit of your brain that controls all the automatic functions in your body such as respiration or breathing your heart rate your blood pressure your skin temperature sweating digestion urine production these are things that occur automatically 24 7 whether you're thinking about it or not so it's subconscious these symptoms when you stand up which you feel start to come on very strongly are effectively due to your autonomic nervous system or your fright or flight system going into overdrive and that means the stress response creates the tension in your body that gives you the palpitations increasing in the breathing rate and the fatigue and the dizziness and the sense of impending anxiety or impending doom and these are some of the symptoms that if you experience you should start to think could it be due to autonomic dysfunction so what is the likelihood that you'll suffer with this long-term symptoms indefinitely and the answer is very low in my experience nearly everyone who comes to see me with autonomic dysfunction in long covet will improve part of that improvement lies in your expectation of recovery and if i just said to the patients that although you were hit hard and fast in a two-week period after covid that the recovery will take six to nine months just saying that out loud and recognizing that your journey is a slow but steady one so long as you embrace that journey and have the full expectation of recovery i see most of my patients getting back to a state of health that they're very happy with the feeling of frustration anxiety hopelessness leading on to perhaps depression is one of the common features i also see in patients with long covet it's super important that you look after yourself and you look after and acknowledge that you have these emotions and that these are not a marker of a mental health or psychological illness because when you have a heightened degree of adrenaline in the freight or flight response attacking your brain causing you to be hyper vigilant causing you to be anxious and reactive throughout the day it's natural to have these feelings one top tip that i can give you and it's something that i've also started to practice myself is to take a time out and take a two to five minute timeout whenever you're feeling overwhelmed and just sit at your desk or lie down close your eyes and do some deep breathing exercises that is slowing your breath to a six second cycle in and a six second cycle out and thinking positive thoughts such as gratitude compassion and love these are things that are not to be taken for granted and can be practiced as many times in a day as you wish to and particularly if you're feeling overwhelmed and particularly first thing in the morning and lasting a night before you go to sleep you

Channel: OneWelbeck

Views: 659

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Keywords: one welbeck, 1welbeck, yt:cc=on

Id: eGHbawtcFGg

Length: 4min 3sec (243 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021