Research published Monday has confirmed a link between a Covid infection and a debilitating heart condition called POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, that has been diagnosed in some patients with long Covid.One of the earlier discoveries with long Covid was that it could be associated with POTS and this new research builds on that, said lead study author Dr. Alan Kwan, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.While the researchers found a small but increased risk of POTS following Covid vaccination and, in particular, the first dose, the risk was greater following a Covid infection itself: Getting Covid was linked to a five times greater risk of POTS than vaccination.Researchers should further explore the immune response to shots, because “the better we understand how the adverse events work, the smarter we can become in designing better vaccines in the future,” Levy said."Many conditions can trigger POTS, including viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19," Dr. Bala Munipalli, a physician who heads the Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, said in an email."