This structural oddity left me at risk for a heart infection, my doctor told me when I was first diagnosed, but one so rare that I didn't need to worry. Yet Watkins says the floppy mitral valve is a red herring. It's just another symptom that can be traced to a glitch, called dysautonomia, in the autonomic nervous system, the body's control center for monitoring and adjusting your vital signs. It's like being in a state of chronic dehydration. According to Watkins, mitral valve prolapse affects up to 12 percent of the U.S. population and is three times more common in women than in men.
Many people have no symptoms.
This may sound ominous. But it turns out, having an off-kilter autonomic nervous system is better than having a heart problem because it's easily fixed. Over the past few years researchers have been assembling evidence that some cases of chronic fatigue syndrome may stem from dysautonomia as well. If they're right, that adds to the mix perhaps 500,000 more individuals who stand to benefit. The cluster of symptoms Watkins and others now call mitral valve prolapse syndrome has been puzzling doctors for decades.