How did you wean off Metoprolol?

Hello Everyone,
My recently fired cardiologist and GP told me to stop “(cold turkey)” taking my daily (prescribed for heart failure in November, 2019) metoprolol 37.5 mg. 08:00 hrs. and 37.5 mg 20:00 hrs. in May,20:2023. Then in June, 2023, he sent a fax to my pharmacist with instructions for me to stop taking (cold turkey also) my ramipril 2.5 mg. Three different internists, six or more general practitioners and at least six cardiologists, over the past 10 years, have OK’d prescriptions for zopiclone 7.5 mg, quetiapine XR 50 mg., AMITRIPTYLINE 25 mg, trazodone 100 mg, cipralex 25mg ,Escitalopram 20 mg, for my chronic insomnia. In addition, I also take Synthroid 88 mcg. for hypothyroidism. I repeatedly complained to every doctor of these aforementioned medical symptoms as well as their misdiagnosis and their treatments for insomnia. I have never been diagnosed for depression or any psychiatric disease in my life, but one would never know that after looking at the number of antidepressants that all these physicians and surgeons prescribe for insomnia.
The moral of this story is , if your physician or surgeon doesn’t listen to your description of symptoms and prescribes unrelated medication, do not hesitate to FIRE every one of them after getting second and third opinions from different doctors and then talk to your attorneys. I would love to hear your comments. Thank you.

Yes, I took metoprolol 25 mg in morning and lisinopril in the evening for about 15 years. They also gave me 80 mg furosemide in the morning. My bp was always below 100/60.
I moved, a new kidney doc changed the furosemide to morning and night. Along with restricted salt diet, I’ve lost 40-50 lbs. Bp dropped more, often 90/50 and I was woozy and short of breath. Heart was happy, it didn’t have to work very hard!
New cardiologist stopped the lisinopril completely. I cut metoprolol to 12.5 mg. PCP and cardiologist neither liked that. Now, they changed the metoprolol to 25 mg 2x a week. My weight kept dropping! Low potassium, also.
Now, I Use daily weighing to be the controlling factor for the furosemide dosage.he has me Limit more salt, too!
I feel better, but have chronic low potassium & palpitations at night when I lay down. Shift my body position and they settle down.
I’m Moving again in 6 weeks across country to east Coast to be near my son & family. Now, bp is around 115/75 most of the time. I’m struggling with my salt and fluid retention, but doing well. I’m 81 yrs old so just trying to maintain. Have dealt with some of this for 60 years! I’m still here, must be a reason.

I don't mean to sound contrary, but how do you know your 'standing' or average BP was 160/92, and that it then dropped to the last number you cited? Were these averaged over several readings each day? A single reading taken during the day is NOT an indication of a high pressure or a low one, and it does not constitute an accurate assessment. So, if you ran a cuff several times throughout several days, and then came up with that high systolic/diastolic, then you had something to worry about. The last pressure, even off metoprolol, suggests that it was probably closer to the real average value for you, but if it's a single measurement, no, it's not.

You probably reduced your dosage correctly, over time, and now your system is finding its equilibrium. To get a more reliable indication of your true BP, do what trained athletes know to do: take your resting HR first thing before you get out of bed, and use a calibrated device to get a BP at the same time. Then, ignore that first day's reading, but record it. Record a day each week for the next three weeks, and then take an average of the three records. That, more than anything will tell you what your BP really is, and that will be quite low. The rest of the day should be, if you're normal, all over the place. Chop cordwood and see what happens to your BP. A measurement taken during that effort will no more be an indicator of your real average BP than would a single measure of your heart rate.

Hey thanks for your response, no I’ve never been told that and after looking it up, I see that an echocardiogram wouldn’t always show myocardial bridge. Maybe I’ll ask my doctor if I can do the test that can rule that out.

Thank you for your post and information. I have a question. Have you ever been told you have a Myocardial Bridge of your LAD artery of your heart? This is one possibility for your symptoms as you say you were told it’s congenital. There is a web page called Myocardial Bridge you might find useful

Hey everyone, I’m 26 years old and was put on metoprolol 25mg, twice a day for tachycardia. I’ve been taking this since 21 years old, so 5 years on it. I’ve had multiple cardiologists and doctors that basically say I will be on this medication my whole life due to echocardiograms and stress test coming back fine. All they say is “genetics” or something along those lines. I’ve stopped listening to them honestly, after about the 3rd year on it I reduced my dosage to 25 in the day and 12.5 at night. Months later I did 12.5 in the day and 12.5 at night. Adjusted decently to that and stayed there for a while. About 2 months ago I started doing 6.25 in the day and 6.25 in the night, and 2 weeks ago was my last dosage of 6.25. I just know all of these side effects I’m feeling (headaches, hair thinning, brain fog, anxiety, irritability, etc.) is from this medication. I’ve always had high blood pressure since I was 15 I would take lisinopril 20 mg and still do that and it’s been decently controlled. I knew stopping metoprolol was going to cause more anxiety, rebound blood pressure and tachycardia. Right now im 2 weeks off. Highest blood pressure has been 160/92, but eventually has come back down to the 130s/70. I did a lot of research and learned that it can take multiple weeks, to a few months for the beta receptors to become active again, especially if taken for such a long term. I’m doing this without medial supervision because they would go against it, but I test my blood pressure at home 10+ a day to make sure it’s safe. I believe it will work. God bless all, hope this is helpful to someone and I hope my beta blocker journey will come to an end within the next few weeks! 🙏🏽

No, I've not had a heart cauterization but had a heart ct scan this year. I was told that my arteries were good. I've had stress test and nuclear stress test and all were good. I do not have AFib but I do get skipped beats and I've been told it's an electric impulse issue but not serious. I have a large hiatal hernia that is possibly causing some of my symptoms; pulmonologist believes it might be pressing on my lungs. I believe it is the cause of some shortness of breath but I've had it for a long time and just recently my symptoms of fatigue and inability to walk any distance or climb steps of any height have gotten much worse. If I knew that the hernia was the reason for my inability to function, I would schedule repair surgery as soon as possible. It is not an easy surgery with recuperation taking a while along with possible complications. I've also been warned that a major concern is the hernia returning or tearing loose even before I leave the hospital. My fear is that I will go through this surgery and my condition will not be better. As I stated, I also have asthma and I read some concerns about being given metropoplol with asthma drugs. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Have you ever had a heart catheterization to rule out a myocardial bridge? Recent discoveries and research are finding this condition can cause unique symptoms in the heart’s functions. Stanford Medical Center . Video series called My Imperfect Heart is excellent to watch.

Thanks for your reply. I am now on day 6 of taking 12.5 mgs of metropoplol tartrate. Some of the fatigue and shortness of breath are better but my blood pressure is trending higher than on full dosage of metropoplol. It's staying in the 130's and upper 80's. For the first time in years, my pulse rate is in the 60's. I am going to try again to make an appointment with my cardiologist (he's always been wonderful but health care is changing).

new guideline for blood pressure:
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/high-blood-pressure-redefined-for-first-time-in-14-years-130-is-the-new-high