September 1, 2025 • 29 mins
What happens when a doctor becomes the patient? For Dr. Diana Driscoll, contracting a virus led to a decade of disability from POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), a condition where the heart races upon standing. But this wasn't just about a racing heart – she documented 80 different symptoms affecting every system in her body, from severe brain fog to digestive shutdown. When her children later developed the same condition, the medical establishment offered no answers despite years in clinical trials.
Forced to become her own researcher, Dr. Driscoll's journey from bedridden patient to groundbreaking inventor reveals crucial insights about invisible illnesses that affect millions. She discovered that POTS isn't a heart problem but rather a presentation of underlying inflammation that disrupts the autonomic nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve – the body's primary anti-inflammatory pathway. This creates a vicious cycle where inflammation blocks the very nerve that should control it.
The breakthrough came when Dr. Driscoll identified patterns of low acetylcholine release and developed Parasym Plus, a patented supplement that restores vagus nerve function. Patients report improved cognition within 20 minutes, normalized digestion, and relief from numerous symptoms traditional medicine couldn't address. Her work challenges the standard approach of treating symptoms rather than underlying causes, providing hope for those with conditions like POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and even age-related inflammatory issues.
Now celebrating the 10-year anniversary of POTS Care, Dr. Driscoll advocates for a fundamental shift in how we approach invisible illnesses. "Patients are not getting validated for an extraordinarily high level of suffering," she explains, sharing her mission to change how these conditions are labeled and treated. Her journey proves that sometimes the most profound medical advances come not from large institutions but from those who've lived through the problem themselves and refused to accept that nothing could be done.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we have a very special
guest.
Her name is Dr Diana Driscolland she's an authority on the
autonomic nervous system.
She's an optometrist and aworld-renowned expert on POTS
and if you don't know what thatis, it's postural orthostatic
(00:26):
tachycardia syndrome and otherinvisible illnesses, and I
happen to know some people thatare dealing with POTS.
I don't know a lot about it.
I'm looking forward to hearingabout it.
But she's also an author, aspeaker, an inventor, a devoted
researcher with five patents todate, and she continues to push
forward with dramatic shifts inthe evaluation and treatment of
(00:47):
these conditions.
That's a pretty strong lead-in.
Diana, welcome to the show.
We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Thank you for having me.
It's really an honor to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well, so, as always, I like to find out.
You know what brings a guesthere, and it sounds like you
have had a personal battle withPOTS, and I only recently a
couple of years ago became evenaware of the condition, but I
now know a couple of people thatsuffer from it.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about this?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, Well, it's gaining more notoriety, if you
will, because so many patientswith COVID have ended up with
POTS about 10 to 14% so you'reprobably hearing of it more
often.
But, as you stated, posturalorthostatic tachycardia syndrome
means that when a patient goesfrom laying down to being
vertical their heart starts torace.
(01:39):
But unfortunately that kind ofintimates that it's a heart
problem.
And thoughts is not a heartproblem.
The heart is reacting tosomething and a real diagnosis
would be whatever is drivingthat fast heart rate and
whatever's driving that alsocauses a lot of other damage.
(02:00):
So patients end up with oh somany symptoms.
I had at one point in my journey80 symptoms and I had a list on
my computer and I would get onthe computer and change them
every time I went to a doctor.
It was like chasing a movingtarget, wow.
Ultimately it affected everysystem of the body and I had to
(02:26):
start figuring it out because noone could help.
I was completely disabled bythis and then my kids got sick
later from just regular viruses.
I can't blame the virus.
My son was bedridden.
He missed three years of school.
(02:48):
No one had any idea what washappening.
We were in clinical trials foryears and their conclusion was
well, we think POTS patients arejust more aware of their own
body.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You've got to be kidding right.
That sounds like fibromyalgiafor a while.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Absolutely Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Yeah right, there's invisibleillnesses.
Patients don't get anyvalidation.
Joe, I thought, well, I'll getsome sort of help because I'm a
doctor, I'm almost 50 years old,I got sick from a virus.
They're not recognizing what'shappening because I'm not
(03:27):
getting to the right doctor.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know it isn't some subtle illness.
I could just push through.
You know I couldn't do it andthat wasn't the case.
I probably went to 50 doctorsand they couldn't figure it out.
So I was forced into becoming aresearcher and I thought well,
here I am in the body of apatient.
(03:49):
I have children affected.
Both of my kids are sick.
I'm an eye doctor, maybe I amin position to get some answers
for us.
And ultimately that's wheresome of those patents came from
Figured things out and thenfigured out my kids, and then we
thought what else could bringpeople to this end point, to
(04:12):
cause POTS?
How can we help others?
And this week actually is POTSCare's 10-year anniversary and
patients feel this back.
So it was not something I'dwish upon anyone, not a drug I'd
want to repeat um, but it endedup with a good ending, yeah so
(04:32):
what?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
what have you found?
I mean, what is this?
A genetic um mutation, is it?
It's a reaction to a I I'm soglad you asked yeah, yeah, I
mean I, I'm going to ask that toyou?
Yeah, well, I'm solving acancer problem right now, and
I've learned a lot about cancerand it's not what anybody thinks
(04:57):
it is.
You know, there's all thesedifferent causes, all these
different issues and there's nota quicker, better answer to any
of this, and that's why I'mkind of curious about this one
amazing isn't that right.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, doctors like to label something and treat
according to a label right,standard of care, right, yeah,
and I've been there.
You know you have eight minuteswith the patient.
You have to move things along.
Their job is not really to diginto, you know, your genetics or
whatever, to try to piecetogether those things.
(05:31):
So I understand that pressureof seeing patients.
I have been there, but in mycase we had to.
We didn't have a choice but, thefirst thing I did when I was
put into the position um, and Ihad been sick gosh, three and a
half years at that point, wow.
I set up genetic diseaseinvestigators because I was
(05:52):
thinking, like you, what are thechances I could develop POTS,
my kids could develop POTS, myhusband at the time was fine and
there's no genetic component.
I thought there's got to besomething and along the journey
I was told I was hypermobile, Iwas stretchy, my connective
tissue is abnormal and they saidit's a genetic disorder of
(06:16):
collagen.
Okay, what are?
Where are the genes for that?
And they go.
Oh, we don't know.
Okay, we're missing too muchhere.
I have a feeling it goes deeperthan this.
So POTS is not a disease, right, it's a presentation.
It's like saying you have afever.
You can't say there's genesresponsible for a fever.
(06:39):
That just doesn't make anysense.
So it's not like there's POTSgenes but there's certain genes
that set us up for thepropensity to it.
And in the patients we see, thevast majority are inflammatory
patients and it's what we callsubclinical, meaning CRP and
(07:00):
CEDR.
What doctors usually use tomeasure inflammation is usually
normal.
So you have to go deeper thanthat.
Those are still inflammatorypatients, but the inflammation
is causing those dominoes tofall and you want to know
where's the source of theinflammation and what dominoes
have fallen.
So it was gosh.
(07:21):
12 years ago I put out theDriscoll theory and I'm happy to
share that with your listeners.
That revealed some of theselayers that were common among
patients and one of them was apropensity to develop high
intracranial pressure, and itescaped diagnosis, usually
(07:43):
because it didn't display astypical.
We didn't get the typical signsof swollen optic nerves or in
the MRI the brain MRIs theyusually looked basically normal.
So doctors will miss that.
We can't afford to miss that.
And then inflammation commonlyblocks a neurotransmitter that
(08:05):
affects the parasympatheticnervous system, that's your rest
and digest system.
So when that happens, then thepatient's digestion becomes
abnormal, like my gallbladdercompletely shut down.
I want to think about thisbecause I have a feeling the
organ itself sounds healthy.
(08:26):
Maybe I can save this, andindeed I could the pancreas,
stomach acid, importantly,motility of the stool.
So patients end up withconstipation, usually punctuated
with diarrhea, and can go intofull-blown gastroparesis where
just nothing is moving, and thenthat causes other issues.
(08:48):
I got to the point Joe, themalabsorption of nutrients was
so significant I washallucinating Whoa, and no one
ever considered the possibility.
I was malabsorbing.
I wasn't an alcoholic, I didn'thave celiac disease or Crohn's
or something.
My son developed severeosteoporosis.
He broke his arm throwing aball putting on a coat.
(09:12):
He was eating but he wasn'tabsorbing those nutrients.
I was able to figure that outThen I just sat down and thought
it'd be great to get thosenerves working again, replace
the neurotransmitter I wasmissing in the brain, restore
that rest and digest system.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
So I was it sounds like a big task.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, it was at the time, but I thought what else do
I have to do?
Right, I'm 100% focused on thatand I was always been just a
real geek.
I loved organic chemistry.
My father was a chemistryprofessor, so I sat down with
what I learned about genetics,what I knew about chemistry, and
(10:03):
tried to put together, usingexisting supplements, something
that would replace thisneurotransmitter.
It would correct for anygenetic defects along the
pathway of making thatneurotransmitter.
It needed to cross theblood-brain barrier to support
cognition and, importantly, Iwanted to see a bowel movement,
because if we saw a bowelmovement we knew that the nerve
was getting triggered right andthat's your anti-inflammatory
(10:25):
nerve.
So it was quite the journey,but I'm very proud of it and I
remember sitting in my kitchenjust putting this together for
my kids and I.
I had no intention of proud ofit and I remember sitting in my
kitchen just putting thistogether for my kids and I.
I had no intention of everreleasing it, but the reason I
did was I developed pancreatitisonce in the hospital, secondary
(10:46):
to an antibiotic that ignitedthe inflammation, and I remember
thinking is there any chancethat Paracin Plus the supplement
mix now could restore mypancreas?
I mean it'll assist the vagusnerve, which is the
anti-inflammatory nerve.
The pancreas is underinnervation of the vagus nerve
and in about two to three daysthings started to improve.
(11:10):
And voila, and that's when Ithought I should probably
release this to others.
Wow, started to get into that.
So one key, too, that I'm alsovery proud of, because I'm an
eye doctor and eye doctors don'tusually get into the autonomic
nervous system.
No, doctors do.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Nobody likes it.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's impossible, it's hard to understand, we don't
have good ways of measuring itand doctors just don't like it.
But when I was working, it'spretty darn necessary.
Yeah, and usually it works allby itself right Right right,
don't have to fiddle with it,but when it breaks it's really
bad.
But, the patients we see withPOTS and it's across the board.
(11:56):
They tend to have fairly largepupils and that's an imbalance
of that autonomic nervous systemand I thought if I hit these
nerves correctly, the pupilsshould normalize, they should
get a little bit smaller andindeed that happened.
So I knew we were doing morethan just the vagus nerve and
tear production increased.
(12:17):
So it was great to be able torelease that also for these
chronic dry eye patients whodon't feel all that well to help
them with that.
So I was pretty proud it camefull circle.
You know, after getting sick,not able to work for over 10
years, I could give somethingback to the profession.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's amazing.
So tell me about this product.
Yeah, what's it all about?
I mean, is it herbs, is itminerals?
What's it made out of?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, it's an over-the-counter supplement.
Okay so it's a blend ofeverything's already deemed safe
by the FDA, and that was reallyimportant to me, and I also
didn't want to have to come upwith a new drug, right, because
what kind of trillions ofdollars, you know, does that
take?
I couldn't wait 10 or 15 yearsfor that, and I knew my kids
(13:12):
couldn't wait.
Patients can't years for that,and I knew my kids couldn't wait
.
Patients can't wait for that.
But when we know the mechanismof action of things and we have
a goal, it's just, it's aproblem to be solved.
And so combination of thoseingredients, looking for that
nerve to trigger with the bowelmovement, looking for the pupils
to get smaller, and then I hadto make sure that patients
(13:36):
didn't adapt to it.
Where the receptors receivethese chemicals and then they
start to shut down because theyhave plenty of that chemical,
that can happen and then thepatient needs more and more of
it and that's not good.
So it was about three years ofputting all that together and
I'm happy to say it's changedmany lives and continues to do
(13:58):
so.
It's called Parasym Plus forparasympathetic nervous system
plus crosses the blood brainbarrier for cognition, and I say
cognition like good thinking orno brain fog.
I got to the point not only didI feel like I was demented, but
I couldn't stay awake.
(14:19):
What first started in my illnesswas severe insomnia.
I was awake for days, even withdrugs morphed into.
I was awake maybe an hour and ahalf in the morning, an hour
and a half in the evening, and Iwas struggling to stay awake.
Then and I had a wonderfulneurologist and he said this
(14:40):
sounds neurodegenerative.
This is what we see.
I said well, we just get worseand we just stop waking up.
You know what the heck?
Paracin plus.
I need it because I could stayawake.
It was amazing to see so thebrain support was significant
too.
So paracin excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And where?
Where can somebody find this?
I am dealing with what theycall chemo fog and oh I, I I'm
in the end game of solving avery difficult cancer right now
and I've I've gone down a roadthat's solving it.
But you know there's a priceyou got to pay with your
(15:22):
cognition and your, you know,memory and all this stuff.
That is temporary, but I'mlooking to clear it out quick as
I can.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
You know, out quick as they can.
You know, the patients we seewill sometimes feel cognition
improve 20 minutes after takingit Nice, because it does quickly
cross the blood-brain barrier.
The more brain fog orexhaustion we see and we'll see
patients, you know, just kind ofbarely holding it together and
(15:54):
it goes into the bloodstream andyou can see them perk up and
the sparkle comes back into theeyes.
So the more affected thepatient, the more dramatic you
can see that response.
That's usually the first thingwe see.
The second is the bowelmovement.
So, we recommend patients takeit first thing in the morning,
wait 45 minutes or so beforeeating or as soon as they have a
(16:17):
bowel movement.
It's fair game.
But in any form of cognitivedecline or struggles we want to
support this neurotransmitter.
Any form of dementia, that'sthe first thing that's done.
So I'm very proactive in myhealth now, brain health
(16:37):
certainly, because now my body'sfine right you don't want to
have old age again.
I already went through thatright yeah.
So anything I can do to supportit, I do, and I think I'm the
most active person I know of.
Uh, brain's working great, youknow, that's great.
So I would encourage certainlyanyone dealing with brain fog to
(16:59):
support that neurotransmitterand don't lose hope because the
neurons reattach.
It's amazing.
I had nothing, I was workingwith nothing for a while and it
took time.
I would see numbers like aphone number and I couldn't
remember them.
Practice it and make sure Icould write it down and then
(17:20):
start reading easy novels whereit was like one or two
characters, see if I couldfollow it, and it all did come
back.
But the brain is fairly plastic.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
It's very amazing I've had a couple of brain
injuries that somehow I'm stillout here talking and being
somewhat reasonable.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
There you go, there you go.
Well, I actually had brainlesions and we could see them on
the MRI.
That was scary, and I encourageeveryone to not ever lose hope
in seeing something objectivelike that and thinking there's
no way around that then.
Oh, that's it for me.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Oh, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, it's amazing what we can overcome.
And you had asked where ParasynPlus is.
That's on VegasNerveSupportcomor the company's called TJ
Nutritionrition and TJ was namedafter my kids, nice, my husband
, james.
Well, it's kind of a familything, you know.
That's where it started, loveit.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
We'll make sure that gets into the show notes for
people.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I appreciate that.
Again, I'm really excited abouthow that can change lives.
And we just look for thepatterns of low acetylcholine
release.
That's the only way to figureit out.
There is no blood test for thisright, because the body breaks
it down immediately.
So we talked about brain fog.
We can get light, sensitivePupils can get big, we get
(18:50):
sluggish digestion, lean towardconstipation perhaps, and we see
more fatigue, mental fatigueand physical fatigue, and
oftentimes patients.
They don't have to have potsfor this, they just have some
sort of chronic inflammatorycondition, like aging, for
example, is one of them.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Inflammating Happens to everybody yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, but they'll say , oh, it's stress, or I'm just
not eating right or whatever.
I think you know, I don't thinkthat's it and I think if we
stay on top of the inflammation,we won't necessarily have to
deal with a lot of these old ageillnesses uh, the tendency for
dementia, for example, orvascular endothelial problems,
(19:34):
that sort of thing.
So there's so much more we cando to be proactive, and had I
not gone through POTS and thathorror, I wouldn't be thinking
in those terms.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I think now I'm probably healthier because of
that journey.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Seems that inflammation has now been widely
recognized as a major I don'tknow monster out there.
That's, that's behind everyproblem that is physiologically
attacking us, and so, butthere's also so many causes for
it and so many ways to approachit.
(20:10):
So this is, and one that Ihadn't really heard of before,
with POTS, has there beendevelopment Like I mean from,
let's say, when this washappening to you and you were
going to all these doctors andnobody knew anything?
Is there now better ways torecognize this condition?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, yes, but it's not always advantageous,
unfortunately.
So to recognize POTS, you havethe patient stand up and then it
becomes pretty obvious.
Heart starts racing.
The problem with that is whenthe patients get that diagnosis.
The traditional treatment forPOTS is purely to try to cover
(20:59):
up symptoms.
Pots is purely to try to coverup symptoms, so we've been
waving this flag for over 10years of.
Instead we need to locate andtreat the underlying problems
and those dominoes that havefallen.
And POTS is not a good label.
Pots is again just thepresentation.
So it's my mission to changethe labels where it's more
(21:22):
labeling the underlying problem,be it the inflammatory problem,
whatever that is, preferablywith a genetic tendency for it
and then we can measure thingsin the blood and say there it is
and this is our treatment.
And then let's be real aware ofthis so you don't get sick
again of this.
So you don't get sick again andPOTS will be seen just like a
(21:43):
fever is seen where it's justone sign of an underlying
problem.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
So you're actually going to a source, not just the
outward symptom.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
That's exactly right Because sadly, Joe, a lot of
what doctors do traditionally totry to cover the symptoms makes
patients worse.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
It certainly did me.
That's a lot of what thispodcast is about is finding real
answers and not just cover-ups.
It's not to make modernmedicine sinister or anything.
It's just the road that ittakes so many times and treating
a problem rather than solving aproblem, and there's a big
(22:26):
difference.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
No, absolutely, and I was in a good position to get
answers, I will admit, eventhough it took 10 years, you
know, and if a big institutionlike an academic institution is
so clunky, they have to spendyears raising money for a trial,
and the trial may or may not besuccessful, and there were so
(22:48):
many layers to so many aspects,so an independent researcher can
move fast, right, and I wasable to do that, so it did help
a lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well, we're getting a little low on time, but I did
want to hear about these patentsof yours and also, just so you
know, this is an offer I make tomost of my guests.
We have a lot more we couldtalk about and I certainly want
to welcome you back to go deepinto any of these topics, but
you've just got such a giganticbody of work.
(23:23):
I'm just curious about thesepatents that you've acquired.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Well, thank you for that, Joe, and I'd love to come
back, and I can you know, untilthe cows come out.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
When I figured out what was going on with this
nerve and how I worked throughthe problem and ultimately
restored that neurology, Ithought I think this is new
science.
I don't think anybody's evertried to do this before and so,
not knowing how difficult it wasto get a patent certainly one
(23:58):
involving supplements that's notsomething that's done I just
sat down and read about patentsand decided I was going to write
one, wrote it.
You know, ignorance is bliss.
So I went to a patent attorneyand got it and then so that was
basically what Paracin Plus wasabout and I was looking at
(24:19):
everything.
I threw everything into thispatent.
Considering like connectivetissue disorders or what I was
told was Ehlers-Danlos syndrome,the autonomic nervous system,
chronic inflammation, just threwall kinds of things in there
and then kind of evolved intomore of the dry eye component.
Wrote patents for that.
(24:41):
No one had ever figured out thatthe vagus nerve that controls
inflammation, every aspect ofdigestion, that rest or digest
system, the receptors for thatnerve are what we call nicotinic
.
But no one had ever figured outa way to stimulate both the
nicotinic receptors anddifferent receptor, muscarinic.
(25:05):
And the muscarinic receptorsare in the pupil.
So when I saw the pupils getsmaller.
I knew it was big news Nice,and it was something in our dry
eye patients.
As an eye doctor, you know wenever looked at that.
We never looked at how largeour pupils were.
We knew they were lightsensitive.
We assumed it was from thecornea drying out.
(25:26):
But we look at the cornea, itdoesn't look that dry and
everything started to click.
You know, chronic dry eyepatients tend to be depressed.
They tend to have sluggishdigestion or brain fog or
whatever.
It was almost like looking at aPOTS patient and turning it way
down.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So To be able to give answers for those people too.
That was more of the patentstoo.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Well, I like the way you think and I love problem
solvers.
I'm a formulator and a problemsolver and I think we probably
have a lot in common with that.
I think you're right, you've gota lot more degrees than I do,
but I live my life and find myanswers, so I'm really impressed
(26:08):
and I respect very much yourjourney.
I think when people find aproblem and they go after it
rather than just flopping in thewind going well, I'm a victim,
I'm stuck, I'm this, I'm that,that's inspiring and it's what
we need, and so I thank you forbeing part of the solution.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Thank you.
Thank you, you're very kind andI appreciate you for helping us
get word out.
I'm just one voice.
I hear you.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Well, why don't you give us your parting shot and
how people can get a hold of youor find out your products, your
information, anything that youwant to share?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yes, I'm at POTScarecom and the supplements
that are patented areVegasNerveSupportcom the POTS
groups that we have.
That's going against thattraditional treatment.
That's making patients worse.
We call them POTS rebels and Ihave a Patreon account for that,
(27:06):
and I'll meet with people wetalk about things, offer support
and share this information,because I really want to stop
how certainly how POTS, but alot of these invisible illnesses
are being judged.
Patients are not gettingvalidated for an extraordinarily
high level of suffering, andthat needs to change.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, thank you so much again,and we look forward to having
you back.
This has been another editionof the Healthy Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine.
We thank all of our listenersand we will see you next time.
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we have a very special
guest.
Her name is Dr Diana Driscolland she's an authority on the
autonomic nervous system.
She's an optometrist and aworld-renowned expert on POTS
and if you don't know what thatis, it's postural orthostatic
(00:26):
tachycardia syndrome and otherinvisible illnesses, and I
happen to know some people thatare dealing with POTS.
I don't know a lot about it.
I'm looking forward to hearingabout it.
But she's also an author, aspeaker, an inventor, a devoted
researcher with five patents todate, and she continues to push
forward with dramatic shifts inthe evaluation and treatment of
(00:47):
these conditions.
That's a pretty strong lead-in.
Diana, welcome to the show.
We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Thank you for having me.
It's really an honor to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well, so, as always, I like to find out.
You know what brings a guesthere, and it sounds like you
have had a personal battle withPOTS, and I only recently a
couple of years ago became evenaware of the condition, but I
now know a couple of people thatsuffer from it.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about this?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, Well, it's gaining more notoriety, if you
will, because so many patientswith COVID have ended up with
POTS about 10 to 14% so you'reprobably hearing of it more
often.
But, as you stated, posturalorthostatic tachycardia syndrome
means that when a patient goesfrom laying down to being
vertical their heart starts torace.
(01:39):
But unfortunately that kind ofintimates that it's a heart
problem.
And thoughts is not a heartproblem.
The heart is reacting tosomething and a real diagnosis
would be whatever is drivingthat fast heart rate and
whatever's driving that alsocauses a lot of other damage.
(02:00):
So patients end up with oh somany symptoms.
I had at one point in my journey80 symptoms and I had a list on
my computer and I would get onthe computer and change them
every time I went to a doctor.
It was like chasing a movingtarget, wow.
Ultimately it affected everysystem of the body and I had to
(02:26):
start figuring it out because noone could help.
I was completely disabled bythis and then my kids got sick
later from just regular viruses.
I can't blame the virus.
My son was bedridden.
He missed three years of school.
(02:48):
No one had any idea what washappening.
We were in clinical trials foryears and their conclusion was
well, we think POTS patients arejust more aware of their own
body.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You've got to be kidding right.
That sounds like fibromyalgiafor a while.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Absolutely Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Yeah right, there's invisibleillnesses.
Patients don't get anyvalidation.
Joe, I thought, well, I'll getsome sort of help because I'm a
doctor, I'm almost 50 years old,I got sick from a virus.
They're not recognizing what'shappening because I'm not
(03:27):
getting to the right doctor.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know it isn't some subtle illness.
I could just push through.
You know I couldn't do it andthat wasn't the case.
I probably went to 50 doctorsand they couldn't figure it out.
So I was forced into becoming aresearcher and I thought well,
here I am in the body of apatient.
(03:49):
I have children affected.
Both of my kids are sick.
I'm an eye doctor, maybe I amin position to get some answers
for us.
And ultimately that's wheresome of those patents came from
Figured things out and thenfigured out my kids, and then we
thought what else could bringpeople to this end point, to
(04:12):
cause POTS?
How can we help others?
And this week actually is POTSCare's 10-year anniversary and
patients feel this back.
So it was not something I'dwish upon anyone, not a drug I'd
want to repeat um, but it endedup with a good ending, yeah so
(04:32):
what?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
what have you found?
I mean, what is this?
A genetic um mutation, is it?
It's a reaction to a I I'm soglad you asked yeah, yeah, I
mean I, I'm going to ask that toyou?
Yeah, well, I'm solving acancer problem right now, and
I've learned a lot about cancerand it's not what anybody thinks
(04:57):
it is.
You know, there's all thesedifferent causes, all these
different issues and there's nota quicker, better answer to any
of this, and that's why I'mkind of curious about this one
amazing isn't that right.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, doctors like to label something and treat
according to a label right,standard of care, right, yeah,
and I've been there.
You know you have eight minuteswith the patient.
You have to move things along.
Their job is not really to diginto, you know, your genetics or
whatever, to try to piecetogether those things.
(05:31):
So I understand that pressureof seeing patients.
I have been there, but in mycase we had to.
We didn't have a choice but, thefirst thing I did when I was
put into the position um, and Ihad been sick gosh, three and a
half years at that point, wow.
I set up genetic diseaseinvestigators because I was
(05:52):
thinking, like you, what are thechances I could develop POTS,
my kids could develop POTS, myhusband at the time was fine and
there's no genetic component.
I thought there's got to besomething and along the journey
I was told I was hypermobile, Iwas stretchy, my connective
tissue is abnormal and they saidit's a genetic disorder of
(06:16):
collagen.
Okay, what are?
Where are the genes for that?
And they go.
Oh, we don't know.
Okay, we're missing too muchhere.
I have a feeling it goes deeperthan this.
So POTS is not a disease, right, it's a presentation.
It's like saying you have afever.
You can't say there's genesresponsible for a fever.
(06:39):
That just doesn't make anysense.
So it's not like there's POTSgenes but there's certain genes
that set us up for thepropensity to it.
And in the patients we see, thevast majority are inflammatory
patients and it's what we callsubclinical, meaning CRP and
(07:00):
CEDR.
What doctors usually use tomeasure inflammation is usually
normal.
So you have to go deeper thanthat.
Those are still inflammatorypatients, but the inflammation
is causing those dominoes tofall and you want to know
where's the source of theinflammation and what dominoes
have fallen.
So it was gosh.
(07:21):
12 years ago I put out theDriscoll theory and I'm happy to
share that with your listeners.
That revealed some of theselayers that were common among
patients and one of them was apropensity to develop high
intracranial pressure, and itescaped diagnosis, usually
(07:43):
because it didn't display astypical.
We didn't get the typical signsof swollen optic nerves or in
the MRI the brain MRIs theyusually looked basically normal.
So doctors will miss that.
We can't afford to miss that.
And then inflammation commonlyblocks a neurotransmitter that
(08:05):
affects the parasympatheticnervous system, that's your rest
and digest system.
So when that happens, then thepatient's digestion becomes
abnormal, like my gallbladdercompletely shut down.
I want to think about thisbecause I have a feeling the
organ itself sounds healthy.
(08:26):
Maybe I can save this, andindeed I could the pancreas,
stomach acid, importantly,motility of the stool.
So patients end up withconstipation, usually punctuated
with diarrhea, and can go intofull-blown gastroparesis where
just nothing is moving, and thenthat causes other issues.
(08:48):
I got to the point Joe, themalabsorption of nutrients was
so significant I washallucinating Whoa, and no one
ever considered the possibility.
I was malabsorbing.
I wasn't an alcoholic, I didn'thave celiac disease or Crohn's
or something.
My son developed severeosteoporosis.
He broke his arm throwing aball putting on a coat.
(09:12):
He was eating but he wasn'tabsorbing those nutrients.
I was able to figure that outThen I just sat down and thought
it'd be great to get thosenerves working again, replace
the neurotransmitter I wasmissing in the brain, restore
that rest and digest system.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
So I was it sounds like a big task.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, it was at the time, but I thought what else do
I have to do?
Right, I'm 100% focused on thatand I was always been just a
real geek.
I loved organic chemistry.
My father was a chemistryprofessor, so I sat down with
what I learned about genetics,what I knew about chemistry, and
(10:03):
tried to put together, usingexisting supplements, something
that would replace thisneurotransmitter.
It would correct for anygenetic defects along the
pathway of making thatneurotransmitter.
It needed to cross theblood-brain barrier to support
cognition and, importantly, Iwanted to see a bowel movement,
because if we saw a bowelmovement we knew that the nerve
was getting triggered right andthat's your anti-inflammatory
(10:25):
nerve.
So it was quite the journey,but I'm very proud of it and I
remember sitting in my kitchenjust putting this together for
my kids and I.
I had no intention of proud ofit and I remember sitting in my
kitchen just putting thistogether for my kids and I.
I had no intention of everreleasing it, but the reason I
did was I developed pancreatitisonce in the hospital, secondary
(10:46):
to an antibiotic that ignitedthe inflammation, and I remember
thinking is there any chancethat Paracin Plus the supplement
mix now could restore mypancreas?
I mean it'll assist the vagusnerve, which is the
anti-inflammatory nerve.
The pancreas is underinnervation of the vagus nerve
and in about two to three daysthings started to improve.
(11:10):
And voila, and that's when Ithought I should probably
release this to others.
Wow, started to get into that.
So one key, too, that I'm alsovery proud of, because I'm an
eye doctor and eye doctors don'tusually get into the autonomic
nervous system.
No, doctors do.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Nobody likes it.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's impossible, it's hard to understand, we don't
have good ways of measuring itand doctors just don't like it.
But when I was working, it'spretty darn necessary.
Yeah, and usually it works allby itself right Right right,
don't have to fiddle with it,but when it breaks it's really
bad.
But, the patients we see withPOTS and it's across the board.
(11:56):
They tend to have fairly largepupils and that's an imbalance
of that autonomic nervous systemand I thought if I hit these
nerves correctly, the pupilsshould normalize, they should
get a little bit smaller andindeed that happened.
So I knew we were doing morethan just the vagus nerve and
tear production increased.
(12:17):
So it was great to be able torelease that also for these
chronic dry eye patients whodon't feel all that well to help
them with that.
So I was pretty proud it camefull circle.
You know, after getting sick,not able to work for over 10
years, I could give somethingback to the profession.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's amazing.
So tell me about this product.
Yeah, what's it all about?
I mean, is it herbs, is itminerals?
What's it made out of?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, it's an over-the-counter supplement.
Okay so it's a blend ofeverything's already deemed safe
by the FDA, and that was reallyimportant to me, and I also
didn't want to have to come upwith a new drug, right, because
what kind of trillions ofdollars, you know, does that
take?
I couldn't wait 10 or 15 yearsfor that, and I knew my kids
(13:12):
couldn't wait.
Patients can't years for that,and I knew my kids couldn't wait
.
Patients can't wait for that.
But when we know the mechanismof action of things and we have
a goal, it's just, it's aproblem to be solved.
And so combination of thoseingredients, looking for that
nerve to trigger with the bowelmovement, looking for the pupils
to get smaller, and then I hadto make sure that patients
(13:36):
didn't adapt to it.
Where the receptors receivethese chemicals and then they
start to shut down because theyhave plenty of that chemical,
that can happen and then thepatient needs more and more of
it and that's not good.
So it was about three years ofputting all that together and
I'm happy to say it's changedmany lives and continues to do
(13:58):
so.
It's called Parasym Plus forparasympathetic nervous system
plus crosses the blood brainbarrier for cognition, and I say
cognition like good thinking orno brain fog.
I got to the point not only didI feel like I was demented, but
I couldn't stay awake.
(14:19):
What first started in my illnesswas severe insomnia.
I was awake for days, even withdrugs morphed into.
I was awake maybe an hour and ahalf in the morning, an hour
and a half in the evening, and Iwas struggling to stay awake.
Then and I had a wonderfulneurologist and he said this
(14:40):
sounds neurodegenerative.
This is what we see.
I said well, we just get worseand we just stop waking up.
You know what the heck?
Paracin plus.
I need it because I could stayawake.
It was amazing to see so thebrain support was significant
too.
So paracin excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And where?
Where can somebody find this?
I am dealing with what theycall chemo fog and oh I, I I'm
in the end game of solving avery difficult cancer right now
and I've I've gone down a roadthat's solving it.
But you know there's a priceyou got to pay with your
(15:22):
cognition and your, you know,memory and all this stuff.
That is temporary, but I'mlooking to clear it out quick as
I can.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
You know, out quick as they can.
You know, the patients we seewill sometimes feel cognition
improve 20 minutes after takingit Nice, because it does quickly
cross the blood-brain barrier.
The more brain fog orexhaustion we see and we'll see
patients, you know, just kind ofbarely holding it together and
(15:54):
it goes into the bloodstream andyou can see them perk up and
the sparkle comes back into theeyes.
So the more affected thepatient, the more dramatic you
can see that response.
That's usually the first thingwe see.
The second is the bowelmovement.
So, we recommend patients takeit first thing in the morning,
wait 45 minutes or so beforeeating or as soon as they have a
(16:17):
bowel movement.
It's fair game.
But in any form of cognitivedecline or struggles we want to
support this neurotransmitter.
Any form of dementia, that'sthe first thing that's done.
So I'm very proactive in myhealth now, brain health
(16:37):
certainly, because now my body'sfine right you don't want to
have old age again.
I already went through thatright yeah.
So anything I can do to supportit, I do, and I think I'm the
most active person I know of.
Uh, brain's working great, youknow, that's great.
So I would encourage certainlyanyone dealing with brain fog to
(16:59):
support that neurotransmitterand don't lose hope because the
neurons reattach.
It's amazing.
I had nothing, I was workingwith nothing for a while and it
took time.
I would see numbers like aphone number and I couldn't
remember them.
Practice it and make sure Icould write it down and then
(17:20):
start reading easy novels whereit was like one or two
characters, see if I couldfollow it, and it all did come
back.
But the brain is fairly plastic.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
It's very amazing I've had a couple of brain
injuries that somehow I'm stillout here talking and being
somewhat reasonable.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
There you go, there you go.
Well, I actually had brainlesions and we could see them on
the MRI.
That was scary, and I encourageeveryone to not ever lose hope
in seeing something objectivelike that and thinking there's
no way around that then.
Oh, that's it for me.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Oh, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, it's amazing what we can overcome.
And you had asked where ParasynPlus is.
That's on VegasNerveSupportcomor the company's called TJ
Nutritionrition and TJ was namedafter my kids, nice, my husband
, james.
Well, it's kind of a familything, you know.
That's where it started, loveit.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
We'll make sure that gets into the show notes for
people.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I appreciate that.
Again, I'm really excited abouthow that can change lives.
And we just look for thepatterns of low acetylcholine
release.
That's the only way to figureit out.
There is no blood test for thisright, because the body breaks
it down immediately.
So we talked about brain fog.
We can get light, sensitivePupils can get big, we get
(18:50):
sluggish digestion, lean towardconstipation perhaps, and we see
more fatigue, mental fatigueand physical fatigue, and
oftentimes patients.
They don't have to have potsfor this, they just have some
sort of chronic inflammatorycondition, like aging, for
example, is one of them.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Inflammating Happens to everybody yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, but they'll say , oh, it's stress, or I'm just
not eating right or whatever.
I think you know, I don't thinkthat's it and I think if we
stay on top of the inflammation,we won't necessarily have to
deal with a lot of these old ageillnesses uh, the tendency for
dementia, for example, orvascular endothelial problems,
(19:34):
that sort of thing.
So there's so much more we cando to be proactive, and had I
not gone through POTS and thathorror, I wouldn't be thinking
in those terms.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I think now I'm probably healthier because of
that journey.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Seems that inflammation has now been widely
recognized as a major I don'tknow monster out there.
That's, that's behind everyproblem that is physiologically
attacking us, and so, butthere's also so many causes for
it and so many ways to approachit.
(20:10):
So this is, and one that Ihadn't really heard of before,
with POTS, has there beendevelopment Like I mean from,
let's say, when this washappening to you and you were
going to all these doctors andnobody knew anything?
Is there now better ways torecognize this condition?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, yes, but it's not always advantageous,
unfortunately.
So to recognize POTS, you havethe patient stand up and then it
becomes pretty obvious.
Heart starts racing.
The problem with that is whenthe patients get that diagnosis.
The traditional treatment forPOTS is purely to try to cover
(20:59):
up symptoms.
Pots is purely to try to coverup symptoms, so we've been
waving this flag for over 10years of.
Instead we need to locate andtreat the underlying problems
and those dominoes that havefallen.
And POTS is not a good label.
Pots is again just thepresentation.
So it's my mission to changethe labels where it's more
(21:22):
labeling the underlying problem,be it the inflammatory problem,
whatever that is, preferablywith a genetic tendency for it
and then we can measure thingsin the blood and say there it is
and this is our treatment.
And then let's be real aware ofthis so you don't get sick
again of this.
So you don't get sick again andPOTS will be seen just like a
(21:43):
fever is seen where it's justone sign of an underlying
problem.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
So you're actually going to a source, not just the
outward symptom.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
That's exactly right Because sadly, Joe, a lot of
what doctors do traditionally totry to cover the symptoms makes
patients worse.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
It certainly did me.
That's a lot of what thispodcast is about is finding real
answers and not just cover-ups.
It's not to make modernmedicine sinister or anything.
It's just the road that ittakes so many times and treating
a problem rather than solving aproblem, and there's a big
(22:26):
difference.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
No, absolutely, and I was in a good position to get
answers, I will admit, eventhough it took 10 years, you
know, and if a big institutionlike an academic institution is
so clunky, they have to spendyears raising money for a trial,
and the trial may or may not besuccessful, and there were so
(22:48):
many layers to so many aspects,so an independent researcher can
move fast, right, and I wasable to do that, so it did help
a lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well, we're getting a little low on time, but I did
want to hear about these patentsof yours and also, just so you
know, this is an offer I make tomost of my guests.
We have a lot more we couldtalk about and I certainly want
to welcome you back to go deepinto any of these topics, but
you've just got such a giganticbody of work.
(23:23):
I'm just curious about thesepatents that you've acquired.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Well, thank you for that, Joe, and I'd love to come
back, and I can you know, untilthe cows come out.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
When I figured out what was going on with this
nerve and how I worked throughthe problem and ultimately
restored that neurology, Ithought I think this is new
science.
I don't think anybody's evertried to do this before and so,
not knowing how difficult it wasto get a patent certainly one
(23:58):
involving supplements that's notsomething that's done I just
sat down and read about patentsand decided I was going to write
one, wrote it.
You know, ignorance is bliss.
So I went to a patent attorneyand got it and then so that was
basically what Paracin Plus wasabout and I was looking at
(24:19):
everything.
I threw everything into thispatent.
Considering like connectivetissue disorders or what I was
told was Ehlers-Danlos syndrome,the autonomic nervous system,
chronic inflammation, just threwall kinds of things in there
and then kind of evolved intomore of the dry eye component.
Wrote patents for that.
(24:41):
No one had ever figured out thatthe vagus nerve that controls
inflammation, every aspect ofdigestion, that rest or digest
system, the receptors for thatnerve are what we call nicotinic
.
But no one had ever figured outa way to stimulate both the
nicotinic receptors anddifferent receptor, muscarinic.
(25:05):
And the muscarinic receptorsare in the pupil.
So when I saw the pupils getsmaller.
I knew it was big news Nice,and it was something in our dry
eye patients.
As an eye doctor, you know wenever looked at that.
We never looked at how largeour pupils were.
We knew they were lightsensitive.
We assumed it was from thecornea drying out.
(25:26):
But we look at the cornea, itdoesn't look that dry and
everything started to click.
You know, chronic dry eyepatients tend to be depressed.
They tend to have sluggishdigestion or brain fog or
whatever.
It was almost like looking at aPOTS patient and turning it way
down.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So To be able to give answers for those people too.
That was more of the patentstoo.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Well, I like the way you think and I love problem
solvers.
I'm a formulator and a problemsolver and I think we probably
have a lot in common with that.
I think you're right, you've gota lot more degrees than I do,
but I live my life and find myanswers, so I'm really impressed
(26:08):
and I respect very much yourjourney.
I think when people find aproblem and they go after it
rather than just flopping in thewind going well, I'm a victim,
I'm stuck, I'm this, I'm that,that's inspiring and it's what
we need, and so I thank you forbeing part of the solution.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Thank you.
Thank you, you're very kind andI appreciate you for helping us
get word out.
I'm just one voice.
I hear you.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Well, why don't you give us your parting shot and
how people can get a hold of youor find out your products, your
information, anything that youwant to share?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yes, I'm at POTScarecom and the supplements
that are patented areVegasNerveSupportcom the POTS
groups that we have.
That's going against thattraditional treatment.
That's making patients worse.
We call them POTS rebels and Ihave a Patreon account for that,
(27:06):
and I'll meet with people wetalk about things, offer support
and share this information,because I really want to stop
how certainly how POTS, but alot of these invisible illnesses
are being judged.
Patients are not gettingvalidated for an extraordinarily
high level of suffering, andthat needs to change.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, thank you so much again,and we look forward to having
you back.
This has been another editionof the Healthy Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine.
We thank all of our listenersand we will see you next time.
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