In this episode, Dr. Joe Schneider explores the complex world of POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) and its link to dysautonomia, a condition that disrupts multiple autonomic systems and causes symptoms like brain fog, chronic fatigue, and heart rate irregularities.

Overview: E2 – The Mitochondria Secret to Healing the Body from POTS

• Dr. Joe Schneider highlights that POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) involves dysautonomia affecting multiple autonomic systems, leading to symptoms like brain fog and chronic fatigue.
• Current treatments for POTS, mainly focused on hydration and beta blockers, often fail due to a lack of comprehensive nervous system evaluation and heart rate management during activities.
• Environmental triggers such as traumatic brain injuries and infections (COVID, Epstein Barr) significantly impact the nervous system of POTS patients, with research linking air pollution to increased neurodegenerative diseases.
• Multiple protective barriers in the body, especially the blood-brain barrier, when compromised, can lead to neurological damage, necessitating rehabilitation through brain plasticity.
• Mitochondria are crucial for healing and recovery; their degeneration reduces cellular energy production, which is essential for responding to illnesses.
• Erchonia lasers, particularly types 1 and 2, enhance mitochondrial function without generating heat and improve circulation and inflammatory response through specific light wavelengths.
• Recovery and neuroplasticity depend on strong mitochondrial function and antioxidant activity, with ketones being favored over glucose for brain energy post-trauma.
• Evidence suggests that nervous system degeneration may not be permanent, driving a paradigm shift toward therapeutic strategies focusing on mitochondrial health for POTS patients.

Notes

🩺 Introduction & POTS Overview (00:00 – 01:34)

• Dr. Joe Schneider introduces his POTS podcast, drawing from 35 years as functional neurologist and personal stroke recovery experience.
• Dysautonomia defined as dysfunction of multiple automatically controlled brain systems including digestive tract, menstrual cycle, and genitourinary system.
• POTS patients present with multiple comorbidities: brain fog, memory loss, anxiety, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, pain, headaches, and digestive issues.

⚠️ Current Treatment Limitations (01:34 – 03:07)

• Cardiologists typically provide first-line treatment with electrolytes, exercise, hydration, and beta blockers, but this approach often fails because it doesn’t evaluate the entire nervous system.
• Patients lack proper guidance on heart rate management during exercise, with some experiencing uncontrolled heart rate increases from simple activities like standing.
• Athletic patients who were previously in excellent shape report inability to perform activities they could do their entire lives.

🔍 Root Causes & Environmental Factors (04:28 – 06:01)

• Multiple triggers attack the nervous system including traumatic brain injury, pathogens (COVID, Epstein Barr), and infections (PANS/PANDAS with strep).
• Dr. Calderon’s research from University of Montana shows air pollution from diesel trucks causes 12-year-old children in Mexico City to develop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease through diminished gray and white matter.

🛡️ Barrier System Dysfunction (06:01 – 07:39)

• Body contains multiple protective barriers: skin, lungs, sinuses, digestive tract, and most importantly the blood-brain barrier.
• Compromised barriers lead to neurological damage and degeneration, requiring rebuilding through brain plasticity.

⚡ Mitochondrial Function & Energy (07:39 – 09:12)

• Mitochondria described as cellular powerhouse essential for healing and recovery from pathogen attacks.
• Healthy mitochondria multiply using their own DNA, while degenerated cells produce fewer mitochondria leading to Wallerian degeneration.
• Strong mitochondrial function critical for responding to illness, degeneration, and bodily assaults.

💡 Laser Therapy Technology (09:12 – 10:59)

• Erchonia lasers used in practice, specifically types 1 and 2 that don’t generate heat, with type 2 having deeper penetration.
• Green, violet, and red visible light lasers stimulate electron chain proteins within mitochondria, enhancing powerhouse function.
• Lasers provide multiple benefits: improved blood flow, circulation, and breakdown of inflammatory processes.

🔄 Plasticity & Recovery Mechanisms (10:59 – 12:47)

• Two key factors for cellular recovery and neuroplasticity: mitochondrial function and antioxidant activity.
• Ketones preferred over glucose for brain function post-trauma because they produce fewer harmful oxidants.
• Medical conferences increasingly focus on returning to cellular health through improved mitochondrial function rather than developing new drugs.

🔄 Paradigm Shift in Treatment (14:16 – 15:34)

• Traditional medical belief that brain damage is permanent is being challenged by evidence of nervous system regeneration capabilities.
• New approach focuses on improving mitochondrial function and antioxidant activity for patients with POTS and dysautonomia.

Transcript

00:00
Dr. Joe Schneider
Foreign. 

00:05
Dr. Joe Schneider
Welcome to my POTS podcast. I’m Dr. Joe Schneider, and after 35 years as a functional neurologist, a personal journey through stroke recovery, and helping thousands of patients, I’m here to share breakthrough solutions for POTS neurological wellness. From getting out of the bed in the morning to rebuilding your nervous system, this is your guide to understanding and overcoming neurological challenges. Let’s begin this journey to recovery together. 

00:34
Dr. Joe Schneider
Our patients are calling us because they have multiple symptoms around pots. And I think we can use the broad term dysautonomia. The broad term dysautonomia means that there’s many different systems that are automatically controlled by the brain, like your digestive tract and a woman’s menstrual cycle, your genitourinary system, are all autonomic functions that happen automatically in our body and respond to nervous system control. When a person comes in and they said, I’ve just been diagnosed with pots, then I know that there’s going to be other comorbidities. And what are they? Brain fog, memory loss, anxiety, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, pain, headaches, you know, correct digestive issues, either constipation or ibs. They are all like indicators that your entire autonomic nervous system isn’t functioning right. They do have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. 

01:38
Dr. Joe Schneider
And so if you try to define one without defining all the functions that are going on the body, then you’re doing your patients disservice. And I would think that most POTS treatment fails because it’s not fully evaluating the entire nervous system. I mean, as for a practitioner, I’m sure that can be frustrating. So if you go to a cardiologist first, usually the first stop for everyone is a cardiologist. And the cardiologist will say that your heart’s functioning fine, they’ll do the proper tests and so forth. If it’s not, you belong with the cardiologist. If it is functioning fine, they’ll give you electrolytes, they’ll give you exercise to do hydration, and they’ll also may give you beta blockers that can cause a change in your heart rate. Now, all those things are really good. 

02:35
Dr. Joe Schneider
They can be helpful, but if they’re not working for you, then you need to find a person that does functional neurology. 

02:44
Joseph Quirk
And even then. So we can kind of relate that to that patch or fix concept were talking about yesterday during the podcast. You know, increasing salt intake and doing aerobic or anaerobic exercise or static exercises, eccentric exercises. They can be great for it, but you know, what’s that next level to reach past that? 

03:07
Dr. Joe Schneider
Well, even with those suggestions, patients are not getting enough guidance so that when they work out, they know where to keep their heart rate at. Or sometimes heart rate goes up so high, even if they just stand up and walk a little bit, right. They’re basically out of control. Now, in normal life, your nervous system should have fine control of what’s going on. You, you should be able to walk up steps, you should be able to stand up, sit down, lay down, you should be able to change positions without your heart rate going off the scales. And then when we talk about training on some of our reels that are on Instagram or TikTok, some of the feedback is. What, what’s the feedback? You know, I’ve exercised my entire life, you know, that’s not it. You know, I’ve always been in shape. 

03:56
Joseph Quirk
Recovering athletes, right? People who did the 40 yard dash or track and field or triathlons their whole life and they just can’t do it now. 

04:05
Dr. Joe Schneider
Football or something like that. And they’re number one. They’re trying to figure out the cause. Was it traumatic brain injury, was it pathogen like Covid or Epstein Barr syndrome? Kids with pans or pandas, strep infections? There’s so many things that attack the nervous system. In fact, one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to was with Dr. Calderon. She’s from the University of Montana and then she has been doing studies with kids in Mexico City, specifically, where they’re exposed to a lot of air pollution from diesel engine trucks. And she has gone through and looked at the toxic effects of air pollution. And so kids at 12 are developing Alzheimer’s and parkinson’s disease from the toxic effects of air pollution. 

04:55
Joseph Quirk
So just diminished gray matter, just diminished. 

04:58
Dr. Joe Schneider
Gray matter and diminished white matter, right? So gray is the neuron, white is the axon or the dendrites or interconnections that happen within the brain. Things like just air pollution that can cause it. So kids at 12 will develop a neurodegenerative disease or will develop a neurodevelopmental disease due toxic effects of air pollution and even the nano effects of air pollution. And she also talked about what we look at is a barrier. A barrier, right. So barriers, if you hear the word barrier, what do you think of blood brain. But what else? It’s kind of a protective shield, right? You know, you put a barrier up, you’re perfecting yourself. So if you look at your skin’s a barrier, right? If you look at your lung is a barrier. Your sinuses are barriers, right? Your digestive tract, there’s a barrier there. 

06:01
Dr. Joe Schneider
We want certain things to get into your body and certain things that don’t come get into the body. So when you look at barriers, when you start compromising barriers, then the main barrier gets compromised, and that’s the blood, brain, bladder barrier, okay? The most important barrier is your blood brain barrier. So even like autoimmune diseases have an effect on your barriers. Even a nerve has a barrier. The membrane, the membrane, the nerve has a barrier. So when those barriers are compromised, then you’re going to cause neurological damage, degeneration. So you either live with it or you do something about it. So what we’re doing about it is we want to rebuild it, right? We want to rebuild your barriers, we want to rebuild your nervous system, and that’s called brain plasticity. 

06:59
Dr. Joe Schneider
So all therapies and techniques that we have in the office are to facilitate and accelerate neuroplasticity. One of the most important things about neuroplasticity is that you want to look at a cell, all right? So if you look at a cell and the cell’s in a storm, okay? So you’re a human being and you’re in a storm, right? And you’re on a boat in a storm. You’re holding on, you’re doing whatever you can. Takes a lot of energy, right? A lot of the conferences that I’ve been to talk about the energy source within a cell that can handle the storm, and that’s the mitochondria, right? So what is mitochondria? 

07:41
Joseph Quirk
Powerhouse in the cell. 

07:42
Dr. Joe Schneider
It’s a powerhouse, right? You can’t do anything without power. You know, we’re talking about, you know, Donald Trump is inauguration. He talks about energy, right? Your body can only heal itself and if it’s got the energy. So even when a pathogen attacks your brain cells, the thing that can bring it back is strong mitochondria. So we need to stimulate them. And so a lot of our therapies in the office, plus a lot of our nutritional programs, one of the primary things we want to do is we want to return the mitochondria to its strength. That can be done by each individual mitochondria being healthy. But when the mitochondria are healthy, they multiply. They have their own DNA. It’s like a cellular organelle within a cell, and it has its own DNA. 

08:35
Dr. Joe Schneider
So when a cell is healthy, it becomes more energetic because it produces more mitochondria. They multiply, right. If they’re healthy. If you degenerate, you get less mitochondria until the cell says, I can’t keep up, sorry, I’m leaving. And the cell degenerates. And we used to call that walarian degeneration of nerves. So the larian degeneration cycle is dependent on the powerhouse. I mean that’s like a incredible word, right? You know, your powerhouse. So when you’re sick, you only going to respond to sickness, degeneration, illness or assault the storm, assault on the body, if you have really sound mitochondrial function. We have erconia lasers in the office and cold lasers are all over the place. So there’s type 1, 2, 3 and 4 types of lasers. 3 and 4 causes heat, but the 1 and 2 don’t cause heat. 

09:44
Dr. Joe Schneider
2 has more penetration than 1 and 2 does not cause any heat also. So the most powerful lasers, the ones that we use, are called erconia lasers. You can go online erconia.com and look up their lasers, but they use visible light. They usually have visible spectrum, which is violet, green and red. Red has been most popular over time. And then they have infrared frequencies. Well, we find that the most energetic lasers are the visible light lasers. And so we have, we do green, violet and red. So we find that the green, violet, red lasers stimulate the electron chain proteins within the mitochondria. So when we shine lasers on your brain or your body and so forth, we’re actually enhancing mitochondrial function, which makes the powerhouse more powerful. When it makes it more powerful, then we multiply the number of mitochondria. 

10:50
Joseph Quirk
It’s also a multipurpose tool. You know, it’s not just improving the mitochondria, but it’s helping improve blood flow, circulation overall. It’s also helping break down inflammatory. It’s got more facets to it than just the initial mitochondrial improvement, which is so beneficial in our practice. 

11:12
Dr. Joe Schneider
Yeah, it has, definitely has multiple functions. But when we talk about plasticity, really what happens is there’s two things that bring a cell back and make it multiply or improve your tracts. Get neurons from stem cells would be the mitochondria. And then the second thing that’s important is antioxidant activity. So an oxidant is what is an oxidant? 

11:40
Joseph Quirk
An oxidant is a protector. 

11:42
Dr. Joe Schneider
Well, an oxidant is a byproduct of metabolism that can be harmful. So once you metabolize things, you produce oxidants and those oxidants can be harmful. To your system. So antioxidant takes that oxygen that’s negative, that negative oxygen, it neutralizes it, and so that we have antioxidant activity and then the cells are better. So after trauma to brain, your brain also doesn’t like glucose, okay? So glucose produces more oxidants than a ketone does. So a ketone is better for brain function because it lowers the oxidation of your system. So the two things that promote, especially with plasticity, would be mitochondrial function and then use antioxidants. Now, some of the conferences that I’ve been to have talked about developing new drugs to do it. 

12:47
Dr. Joe Schneider
But then at the end of the conference, they talk about going back to the cell, making the cell healthy through improving mitochondrial function, the powerhouse. There’s other functions within the cell, like the endoplastic reticulum, where you’re making proteins, you’re making certain chemicals from reading your DNA. So those cellular functions are very important to create plasticity. So plasticity is, we’re going to improve cellular function and then we’re going to improve the tropism, which is the connectivity of the brain. We will grow actual new connections, which I think is like, wow, you mean we’ve been left with this body that can self regenerate and the nervous system is one of those that things and. 

13:40
Joseph Quirk
Just naturally regenerate body properties. 

13:43
Dr. Joe Schneider
So, but the thought within the medical profession, chiropractic profession, and naturopathic doctors and so forth, has been that once your brain has been damaged and injured, I mean, that’s it, you know, you can just put up your trophies and then kind of walk away from like what you did in your life. And now it’s like you can get your life back. Terrible stuff, incredible stuff. So if we talk about plasticity, then we have to talk about measuring within the body the different functions that go along with that. So I would suggest that you take this concept today and start thinking about it. If you’re within the throes of POTS or dysautonomia and you’re having multiple syndromes that are going in within your body, then you look at doing things that improve your mitochondrial function and also your antioxidant activity within your body. 

14:36
Dr. Joe Schneider
If you need help with that, you just give us a call. You can schedule a consult with myself or with Joe, and Joe can also counsel you on the different things that we do in the office to work with people, get your life back, right? It’s always about life impact. Well, thank you very much. It’s been great to be on with you and we’ll see you on the next podcast. 

15:07
Dr. Joe Schneider
Thank you for joining us on my POTS podcast. If you’re looking for more support, Visit us at hopeprayingcenter.com or follow our journey on TikTok, where we share daily insights and inspiration. Remember, healing is potential lost on living proof. I’m Dr. Joseph Schneider and I’ll see you next time as we continue exploring paths to recovery.