Episode 43: Dr Tae Chung - POTS, the nervous system and autoimmunity

Dr Tae Chung has been running the POTS programme at John Hopkins University for the past five years, but has seen a large increase in referrals due to Long Covid.

Both a neuromuscular doctor, and a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, both a clinician and a bench scientist, Dr Chung is able to work on treating POTS in a more holistic way, alongside his MDT.

Dr Chung discusses his focus on physical rehabilitation, explaining the importance of ‘exercise’ and how this should be approached in these conditions that induce PEM.  He explains how this illness has impacted our nervous systems and our immune systems, and he talks us through his treatment strategies.

Dr Chung’s belief is that Long Covid is driven by an inflammatory neuropathy and is now involved in a Phase Two clinical trial of a drug to reduce autoantibodies.

So many Long Covid patients seem to have some POTS-like symptoms which, in our personal experience, can be hard to navigate.  Whilst we have already looked at POTS in previous episodes, it seems there is a lot we can learn from the nature of the syndrome, overlap of symptoms, and methods of POTS specialists.