POTS and Summer Heat: When “Hot Girl Summer” Turns Into Hot Girl Survival Summer

While everyone else is preparing for a “Hot Girl Summer,” people with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) are preparing for Hot Girl Survival Summer.

As the temperature gets hotter outside our blood vessels will expand to help cool us down. For someone with POTS, this means our blood will pool in the lower half of our body, meaning less blood is getting back to our heart and even less getting back to your brain.

The heart tries to compensate by beating faster, but sometimes it still can’t keep up.

That’s when symptoms can hit hard:

• Pre-syncope (feeling like you may faint)

• Brain fog

• Nausea

• Blurry vision

• Full-body weakness

• Increased heart rate

• Passing out in more severe cases

Even the few moments it will take to get to your car or get the mail will be enough to trigger it. Once reaching this point it can take a long while to recover. POTS and summer heat, what helps?

POTS and Summer Heat: Staying Ahead of Symptoms

One of the biggest things that helps is staying ahead of hydration.

Staying ahead of hydration is huge because even small drops in blood volume make symptoms worse. Everyone will bring up electrolytes, which are important! But I have yet to find one that I like. As a replacement, I’ll add a few pinches of celtic sea salt to my water a few times a day, using more salt on higher symptom days.

Keeping instant cooling packs in your bag, car, bedside table, and easy to reach places helps not only the cooldown, but eases the chest pain when your heart is running a marathon. For nausea, I’ve found rubbing peppermint essential oil or tiger balm on my stomach and temples are a good start before going straight to the Zofran.

Every POTS Experience Looks Different

One of the hardest parts about living with POTS is that symptoms can vary so much from person to person.

Everybody’s symptoms are unique to them and you might struggle with some more than others. It’s hard to prepare for everything but in recognizing your top  few worst symptoms, you can start preparing yourself just a little early.

Thank you to the writer who shared their experience for this Patient Perspectives article. One of the most powerful parts of community is realizing someone else understands what you’re going through.

If you’d like to share your own experience with chronic illness, caregiving, diagnosis, treatment, or daily life, we’d love to hear from you. Anonymous contributions are always welcome for those who feel more comfortable sharing that way.