You have just been diagnosed with dysautonomia - or maybe you know someone else that was just diagnosed with dysautonomia. Either way you're probably pretty confused about it, and maybe you're even a little scared, too. So what do you do now? Well, if you're like the rest of DYNA kids and their families you want to learn about your condition. Learning about your condition will empower you, and it may even help you get an "A" in science.

Dysautonomia is a pretty big word for a kid, and it is pronounced
dis-auto-nome-eia. This means that the automatic things your body always does may not be happening so well. Dysautonomia is a dysfunction of your autonomic nervous system. Obviously, the autonomic nervous system is very important to our bodies. It controls the insides of our bodies. Things like the heart, stomach, intestines, blood pressure, body temperature regulation, endocrine system (glands), pupil dilation, and muscles (in the skin, around blood vessels, in the eye, stomach, and in the heart) are all controlled by the autonomic nervous system. A malfunction of this system impacts every organ of the body. Most of the time we are unaware of our autonomic nervous system working in its usual "involuntary" manner. It controls our systems "automatically" and we usually take it for granted. Essentially, your autonomic nervous system is ALWAYS working to keep normal internal functions operating.