Scheldon Kress is a specialist in Internal Medicine with over 30 years of clinical experience caring for patients with challenging medical problems. Over the course of his career, he has pioneered the development of several educational and behavioral health management programs. The majority of POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) patients, primarily female adolescents and young adults, suffer with mysterious and frightening symptoms while searching for a diagnosis and help.Like so many physicians, he knew nothing about POTS, and went through three agonizing years until he found the cause of his grandson's scary illness - POTS. Many medical specialists were unable to explain his headaches, fatigue, "tunnel vision" and especially, his short-term memory loss. This bright 16 year old was suddenly unable to participate in his classes, complete his schoolwork and enjoy social activities with his friends. Yet, once he found knowledgeable POTS specialists, he was able to navigate POTS, take back his life, become his college mascot, graduate from college and even climb 14,000 foot mountain peaks with friends.A general lack of knowledge about the mechanisms responsible for POTS and its treatment stimulated me to review the published medical literature dealing with POTS. Hundreds of articles have been published in medical journals dealing with POTS over the past 25 years. It's not clear why the world-wide medical literature is so rich with information, yet that information is not well disseminated to physicians. Most physicians have no knowledge of this condition. Thus, physicians do not consider the possibility that POTS might be the cause for the puzzling symptoms of the patient being examined. POTS has been called a "missed and misdiagnosed disorder."Passionate about helping patients with POTS, Dr. Kress provides POTS patients and their families with a better understanding of the causes of, potential treatments for and effective strategies to successfully gain POWER over POTS.
