Current treatments aimed at treating dysautonomia focus on how to minimize the recurrent symptoms. People with this ailment find some medications are helpful to reduce the occurrence of symptoms and minimize the caused effects. However, with any health issues, prolonged use of medications is strictly not recommended, as it may interfere the body functions.
Conventional treatments for dysautonomia
Conventionally, dysautonomia is treated by providing treatments for the cardiovascular symptoms of the ailment. Thus, medications related to cardiovascular improvement are given. These medications work by regulating blood pressure and heart rate.
Cardiac medications help inhibit heart rate fluctuations that occur whenever dysautonomia strikes. It also maintains a moderate level of blood pressure and thus, prevent negative effects of too low or too high blood pressure.
The use of cardiac medications to treat dysautonomia seems quite effective since heart-related symptoms are very common in people suffering from dysautonomia. They manage to prevent sudden fainting and other complications from extreme nervous system disorders.
However, a downside of the use of these medications is quite obvious, in that the medications only give proper treatment for cardiovascular symptoms of dysautonomia, so that the other types of a potential system connected to the illness are not entirely treated. In other words, this conventional treatment of dysautonomia merely gives a solution for specific cardiac symptoms, instead of directly aiming the root of dysautonomia.
Another downside concerns about potential side effects that may occur as a result of prolonged use of cardiac medications. Moreover, dysautonomia shows some other symptoms that cannot be eliminated using this type of medications, such as extreme fatigue, insomnia or sleep disorder, and body temperature problems.
Alternative treatments for dysautonomia
One recently-developed treatment for this autonomic disorder or dysautonomia is called TVAM (Transvascular Autonomic Modulation). Since dysautonomia affects the nerve system, this treatment, which is performed by modeling the nerve fibers surrounding the vein is promising and may be effective in treating non-cardiovascular symptoms of dysautonomia.
These nerve fibers are the nerves functioning as a communicating medium between the body and the autonomous nervous system (ANS), which is stimulated to activate certain reflex regulating venous tones. This reflex leads to increased sympathetic tone, which when modulated is able to increase autonomic functions in many patients of dysautonomia.
How TVAM is performed
Instead of asking the patients to take oral medications that affect the nervous system, TVAM is performed using a different technique. To perform TVAM, a catheter is inserted into a preciously-made incision in the groin. This catheter is threaded up into the jugular vein, which triggers the dilation of the vein. Afterward, the autonomic afferent fibers go alongside the vein, causing the nerves to be stimulated when the vein is dilated.
The procedure is quite simple and not time-consuming. Since no specific medications are used, this becomes a simpler method of improving dysautonomia. Despite this short procedure, TVAM gives various benefits to those suffering from non-cardiac symptoms of dysautonomia. This simple procedure effects may last for a quite long period, especially when accompanied by some other natural treatments for minimizing the risk of dysautonomia recurrence.