Can COVID cause POTS?

New onset of postural tachycardia following infection is well described, and it is one of the more concrete things reported in the post-viral literature. Whether the infection caused it or revealed something already present is not resolvable in an individual case.

Is POTS the same thing as dysautonomia?

Not quite. Dysautonomia is the umbrella term for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is one specific pattern within it, defined by what happens to heart rate on standing. People use the words interchangeably online, which matters because the umbrella term has no single test and the specific one does.

Can I do the standing test at home?

You can take your own heart rate lying and standing, and plenty of people do. What you cannot do at home is the structured version a diagnosis rests on, which is run under defined conditions and read alongside blood pressure. Treat a home reading as a reason to ask for the real thing rather than as an answer in itself.

Is it long COVID or POTS?

By BeatSIBO editorial team · Updated August 5, 2026

At a glance

What it is
Long COVID gut
A time-anchored description
POTS
A specific measurable event
Test
Long COVID gut
None specific
POTS
A structured standing test
Cost to check
Long COVID gut
Not applicable
POTS
Low, widely available
Produces a number
Long COVID gut
No
POTS
Yes

Long COVID gut compared with POTS, on the dimensions that separate them
Dimension	Long COVID gut	POTS
What it is	A time-anchored description	A specific measurable event
Test	None specific	A structured standing test
Cost to check	Not applicable	Low, widely available
Produces a number	No	Yes

The one that matters: If postural tachycardia might be part of your picture, it is the cheapest real answer available anywhere on this site.

Of every pair covered on this site, this one has the clearest practical answer, and it is not the one most pages give.

What actually separates them

The short answer

Long COVID describes symptoms persisting after a documented infection. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome describes a specific measurable event: a sustained heart rate rise on standing without a blood pressure drop. One is a broad time-anchored description, the other a narrow measurement. For many people they are not competing labels at all, because the second sits inside the first.

That framing matters. Asking which one you have implies they are alternatives. A person can meet the standing-test definition and also have persistent post-infection symptoms, and a great many do.

Why one of these is worth testing first

The short answer

A structured standing test is inexpensive, widely available, and produces a number that can be compared against a threshold. Almost nothing else discussed on this site can say that. If part of your picture might be postural tachycardia, that is the cheapest real answer available to you, and it does not depend on resolving anything contested.

What is not settled here

Whether infection caused postural tachycardia or revealed something that was already developing is not answerable in an individual case, and you will see confident claims in both directions. It also rarely changes what happens next, which is why we would rather spend the page on the part that is measurable.

Why the gut is involved

Autonomic function influences gut motility. Slowed transit produces bloating and altered bowel habit, which is the same picture bacterial overgrowth produces, which is why all three keep turning up in the same conversation. The guideline is direct about the limits of reasoning from that picture.

Pimentel M et al., American Journal of Gastroenterology 2020 Clinical guideline

No single symptom can be specifically attributed to overgrowth. When autonomic dysfunction, post-viral illness and overgrowth all generate the same complaints, symptom pattern carries no diagnostic weight on its own.

What to do next

Get the standing test. Then take the result, with your infection history, to a clinician. A measured number plus a timeline is a substantially better starting point than a symptom list that fits four conditions.

Common questions

Can COVID cause POTS?: New onset of postural tachycardia following infection is well described, and it is one of the more concrete things reported in the post-viral literature. Whether the infection caused it or revealed something already present is not resolvable in an individual case.
Is POTS the same thing as dysautonomia?: Not quite. Dysautonomia is the umbrella term for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is one specific pattern within it, defined by what happens to heart rate on standing. People use the words interchangeably online, which matters because the umbrella term has no single test and the specific one does.
Can I do the standing test at home?: You can take your own heart rate lying and standing, and plenty of people do. What you cannot do at home is the structured version a diagnosis rests on, which is run under defined conditions and read alongside blood pressure. Treat a home reading as a reason to ask for the real thing rather than as an answer in itself.