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Side effects of beta blockers
Im now 40 years old, was out on Lisinopril around 7 years ago, a couple of years later I was put in Motoprolol. At first the tiredness and fatigue was small, just happening every so often, but nothing that was to bad. But as the months and years went on, the fatigue and weakness kept getting worse and worse. Around 3 years ago, it stuck and won't go away. I'm taken less of a dose, cut it in half and taken half in the morning, half at night. I've taken it at night to sleep through the worst of it, and still wake up feeling like a weight a thousand pounds and can hardly stay awake. It's extreme. I have talked to two different cardiologist who seem to think it's something else on top of the medications, and that my beta blockers shouldn't be making me this sick. I'm now on Atenolol, and I still feel terrible. But I did what my doctors suggested, and I started seeing specialist. I've been just about every doctor under the sun, I've had my thyroid checked twice. Just a rheumatologist and they have cleared me of anything. I feel like it is my beta blockers making me this sick, ive so.msnt other symptoms that add up to it being them. Has anyone else experienced this before? What did you do that helped? And how can I talk to me cardiologist about helping me try something else?? I'm scared of doing much to much changing, this is my heart and blood pressure we are talking about. The medication is helping keep it all stable, but I can't live the rest of my life feeling like this.
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Just on the face of it, I think I lean toward the cardiologists' assumptions. You are on a half-dose and still feeling.....well.....worse actually. So this suggests to me that something else is amiss, not the reduced metoprolol. I could see if you retained a dose and it was consistently making you breathless due to low heart volume, feeling faint, or just plumb outta energy. And metoprolol does have that unfortunate effect on hearts that only suffer from arrhythmia, but that have no other structural defects. Valves check out, ejection fraction checks out, there is no hypertrophy in any of the four chambers...but the metoprolol keeps a tachyarrhythmia in a lower range of BPM. Some report, and I'm one of them, that when the heart was behaving, not in atrial fibrillation or whatever, that my otherwise robust structure, no ischemia per tests, no problems with EF or with valves, my HR would run low and I would get an awful feeling of wanting to shut down, with tingling at the back of my neck. When I finally went to an ICU for runaway AF, they found my heart pausing for up to 8-10 seconds at a time. No beats. This was after three consecutive rises in dosage of metoprolol. Not when they were halved!
I suspect that you need some concerted diagnostic measures to learn what is amiss with you. I can't see it being metoprolol (although it's hard to argue with your body's messages if it turns out to be the case). If recent diagnostics don't point to ischemia due to stenoses, no structural defects, HR is in the normal range, or very close, and you have no obvious problems with maintaining an in-range blood pressure, we need to look elsewhere. You may need to ask to see an internist and go from there.
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4 Reactions@gloaming thank you. I will take this up with my cardiologist. I want to explain something a little better, I am on 50 mg of Atenolol. I take half in the morning, and half at night before bed. If I take the full 50 in the morning, I'm basically unable to fuction all day. The reason I was put on them was for Acute Sinus Tachycardia. I have seen every doctor you can see to try to rule out it being anything else, so far everything has come back normal. I don't know what else it could be anymore but these medications. They are the only medications I am on. It's gotten so bad I can no longer drive and had to quit a good job because of how weak I stayed, on top of other symptoms. The last time I was in the hospital, they did a sonogram and found no thickening of the heart wall, no blockages. That's what made them think something else was going on that was causing how I felt. I am going to my cardiologist next week and plan on talking to him about everything and seeing about looking deeper into the possibility of something else going on with my heart, but also talk about different medications.
I am dealing with this. I have a history of heart attacks and stints since I was 35. Been on two beta blockers, losartan and metoprolol since then. Now have Bradycardia and am constantly dizzy with headaches. My Cardiologist says it's just age, I'm 76, but my VA doctor thinks it's damage from heart attacks and stints weakening the heart muscle. I do to, but can't get anything in writing. Changing medicines isn't working .. need a different cardiologist but it's a rural town surrounded by rural towns.
@heatherbev You may have to investigate a pacemaker and what it can/can't do for you. If you have a wonky SA or AV node, or some other cardiomyopathy as yet unknown, perhaps a pacemaker will be the only measure to keep a lid on your tachyarrhythmia, but also let you go of any rate control meds. Be sure to introduce that topic with your cardiologist....who may shake his /her head and say it's not an option for you. Okay....but....why? And then run to get a second opinion.
@rayski Please see my reply to heatherbev just now. It may be time for a pacemaker. I am not a doctor, so this is just me free-thinking and it's a legitimate question. Maybe the answer will be a firm no, but if there is a reasonable explanation, you can rule that measure out.
@gloaming i belie v e you are right, my problem is my cardiologistvseems locked into its just can age thing, and without a diagnoses other than age, it blocks everything else no matter how realistic the other things are
@rayski I see what you are saying, and you're right that it seems/sounds dismissive. Learn to live with it. Well, that's not good enough!
If I were in your shoes, I'd find another cardiologist and see what a second opinion sounds like.
I was tired all day long and just wanted to sleep on beta blockers. It destroyed my life until I found one that I could take without ill effects. I also take it at night which has also helped me. Please speak to your doctor before you change any medication timing.
Not sure if this applies to your situation but around the same time I had my first couple of episodes of Afib, I was also experiencing nearly constant fatigue, which I attributed to possible long Covid and /or the 50 mg of Metoprolol prescribed by my cardiologist. When I met with an EP to discuss getting an ablation, he told me about sleep apnea, which is associated with Afib, and according to him, it is very under diagnosed. At his advice I had a home sleep study, which revealed moderate sleep apnea, about 35 disturbances per night. So, I started using a CPAP machine, and soon thereafter, my energy level improved. My oxygen levels while sleeping often dipped below 89 prior to using a CPAP, and with the CPAP machine are always 94 and above during the night (Apple Watch). I still take 25 mg of Metoprolol, but it doesn't seem to cause fatigue.
@nevets
Correction: 35 disturbance per hour (my sleep apnea).