The most recent Journal of the American Heart Association included a study showing that an exercise training program worked better than a commonly used beta blocker. It significantly improved — even cured — patients with a debilitating heart syndrome, according to research published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) — called “The Grinch Syndrome” because most patients have a heart that’s “two sizes too small” — affects about 500,000 Americans, primarily young women. POTS is characterized by a rapid increase in heartbeat of more than 30 beats per minute or a heart rate that exceeds 120 beats per minute when patients change from lying down to standing within 10 minutes. The heart rate is high with palpitations, but the stroke volume (the volume of blood pumped from the heart with each beat) and blood volume are low.