What to Treat First When Everything Is Flaring with Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep 186)

About this episode

Dr. Linda Bluestein and Dr. Dacre Knight discuss treatment strategies for complex chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and POTS.

There is no magic treatment for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, or mast cell activation disorders, but there is strategy. In this episode of Bendy Bodies, Dr. Linda Bluestein is joined by Dacre Knight, MD, founding Medical Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorders Center, for a practical and deeply thoughtful conversation about how complex chronic conditions should actually be treated. Rather than chasing quick fixes, Dr. Bluestein and Dr. Knight explore sequencing. What to address first when everything is flaring, how to balance short-term symptom relief with long-term sustainability, and why overtreatment can sometimes cause more harm than good. They discuss the pitfalls of siloed care, the insurance barriers that complicate physical therapy, and the importance of starting low, going slow, and minimizing treatment burden. The episode also tackles difficult but essential questions: What does “getting better” really mean in lifelong connective tissue disorders? How do clinicians avoid reactionary prescribing? And how can patients recognize the difference between a thoughtful care plan and a rushed one? Takeaways: There is rarely a single “magic” treatment for EDS…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Linda Bluestein

Guest: Dacre Knight

Topics covered

• chronic conditions
• treatment strategies
• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
• POTS
• patient care
• physical therapy

Keywords

• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
• POTS
• treatment sequencing
• chronic illness
• physical therapy
• patient care
• overtreatment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorders Center

Books & works: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, mast cell activation disorders

More episodes of Bendy Bodies with Dr. Linda Bluestein

• Hypermobility Then and Now | Episode 200 · June 11, 2026 · 1h 28m
• Fatigue, Pain, Poor Sleep? It Could Be Vitamin D. | Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff & Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep. 199) · June 4, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Why Lipedema Resists Diet and Exercise with the Lipedema Foundation (Ep 198) · May 28, 2026 · 1h 14m
• Why Everything You've Been Told About EDS Lifestyle Is Wrong with Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep 197) · May 21, 2026 · 1h 9m
• Too Flexible to Fix? Orthopedic Surgery and Hypermobility with Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein (Ep 196) · May 14, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Busting Common EDS & MCAS Myths with Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep 195) · May 7, 2026 · 1h 4m