#heart problems of any kind warrant the input of a cardiologist

[mental-illness-bingo]

Actually, a cardiologist is literally the most commonly suggested first step because even when you start at a neurologist, they will most of the time tell you "there is nothing I can do until you see a cardiologist because checking for heart problems is the first priority". That's because if there *is* a heart problem, it is likely to be life threatening if left untreated.

Until/unless we find a way to directly test for POTS (Tilt Table is not a direct test, it's exacerbating symptoms and taking their best guess based on self reported subjective information in combination with data), we will need to do it by ruling out the more common causes of these symptoms, which are heart conditions. Such is the way of "zebra" diagnoses - they gotta check if it's a horse first.

Also, most POTS medications are heart medications, and many neurologists aren't comfortable prescribing them.

There are many things a cardiologist can do for someone seeking a POTS diagnosis and sometimes they play a vital role in continued treatment. Neurologists do not always have IV fluids on deck, whilst cardiology clinics are common places to access walk-in IV saline.

Just because something isn't a heart condition, doesn't really mean anything when the symptoms are related to the heart. If it affects your heart in any significant way (especially a disorder where the major identifying symptoms are heart related), you will probably need input from a cardiologist.

If you didn't in your journey, that's good for you, but it's also extremely uncommon. It's kind of dangerous misinfo to say that a cardiologist cannot help someone with POTS, and in many cases, a post like this can cause someone to not get treatment for *months* if not a year because specialists usually take about half that time to get into, and if they go to a neurologist first just to get the very common response of "we need to check your heart first", you are asking them to do that 3 times (first to go to the neurologist you say is the "right" doctor, then to get to the cardiologist, then to get back to the neurologist). That kind of time without knowing for sure what's wrong, and without any kind of treatment may land someone in the ER, all because they read a post and thought you knew what you were talking about. Had they not seen said misinformation, they may have a diagnosis months or even a year or more before that.

In fact, I am not diagnosed with POTS yet at this very moment because I was told they are unable to diagnose POTS until they test for and get normal results on various heart tests that need to be performed and/or interpreted by cardiologists. Idk if diagnostic requirements are different where you live, but what I heard is very common in the US.

None of this is me saying a neurologist isn't an extremely important part of the journey for many if not most POTSies. They are essential to many people's treatment. However, in most cases, one of the first steps if not the very first one is heart testing.

Please please do not give medical advice based on surface information without taking into account the other pieces.

In the POTS tag and people are suggesting that their main doctor be a cardiologist?? You guys do know dysautonomia is a neurological condition right? Like yeah your heart rate goes crazy but it actually has nothing to do with the heart. It’s your autonomic nervous system baby.