supraventricular ectopy and metoprolol

Others will comment here with more experience. I know many people taking this beta-blocker. I have low blood pressure and cannot take it. because it lowers blood pressure further. I tried it once, briefly, years ago. If your blood pressure is not low, you should not have the same problem. My mother and several friends have found it to be helpful.

Metoprolol has been my friend. I’m now only on 12.5. It has helped with arrhythmias and high heart rates.

Metoprolol has been widely used for literally millions upon millions of sufferers of arrhythmias of all kinds. It reduces the force with which the heart muscles contract, and it also slows those contractions. It's good for incipient blood pressure rises and it's good to keep hearts that are persistently, or paroxysmally, in arrhythmia from rising into the 100+ BPM range. I have used it for five years now, but not in the past ten months since a successful catheter ablation to isolate the pulmonary veins in a bid to stop my atrial fibrillation (AF).

I began to run into bradycardia, as in only 30 BPM, when in arrhythmia as my dosage of metoprolol climbed, by prescription, to keep my rate down when I was in AF...which as is typical for most people, happens over time. So, as is the case with so many drugs, they tend to lose their potency, or efficacy, over time. You need more of it. At some point, things come to a head and either another intervention is needed, or something drastic has to be done.

Even oxygen is toxic in sufficient quantities, but none of us can do without it. Similarly, metoprolol can, and often will, help to keep a person's heart in a decent range. It is when the dosage must climb, and climb again, and yet again, that some of us run into the wall and need something else to help us...another drug, a catheter ablation, or just learn to live with the defect and how it feels...its symptoms. Those, like myself, who simply cannot abide being in AF, will happily forego the drugs if an ablation puts them firmly back in NSR, even if just for a whole year. My anniversary is in mid-February. If I get there still in NSR, there's a nice chilled bottle of champers on its way to my EP's office.

You should discuss the option of a PIP...pill in pocket, with your electrophysiologist or cardiologist. I don't mean metoprolol...that is best taken on a schedule. But maybe an anti-arrhythmic drug like Flecainide, diltiazem (which also has a modest beta-blocker effect), or propafenone, maybe Sotolol or Multaq....there are options if you go into AF occasionally and it takes many hours to revert to sinus rhythm.

I do pill in a pocket diltiazem but it also lowers blood pressure and poses some problems for me. If I go into Afib for any length of time (hours) I go to the ER and am sometimes admitted so they can titrate it and watch my blood pressure.

Hi..

I have SVT about 12 times a year, typically w exercise (yoga, swimming, hiking). I take propanolol as needed.....carry it with me all the time. I recently learned the REVERT method....here is a link to a number of articles. It is a variation on the valsalva maneuver. I converted immediately in my most recent episode and look forward to see if it will be a reliable alternative to medications in the future. Or possibly w propanolol. The literature suggests trying REVERT first.