Please don't hate bisoprolol too badly, it works great on me

Posted , 4 users are following.

Hello,

I have had AF and was once on propranolol, originally prescribed for my anxiety. Though anxiety was reduced and heart beat was improved to be more regular, it also made me feel "calm but depressed and less active" and my heart felt "too quiet". Now I have started taking bisoprolol and forgot that I have taken it, and that weird feeling of my heart beating in irregular rhythm is totally gone!!! I feel like I am not taking anything and still feeling normal around my heart!!! I am so happy. I hope there would be more people with AF that can benefit from bisoprolol, particularly those who have not been happy with propranolol.

0 likes, 17 replies

17 Replies

  • Posted

    I second what Natsu said.  When I was diagnosed with severe tachycardia in January, I was reluctant to take medication because of all the negative reviews I had read here.  I am a landscaper and I need to perform physically.  I take 2.5 mg of bisoprolol daily, which completely controls symptoms of tachycardia with no reduction in my physical ability to do my work.  I think beta blockers' reputation for making patients sluggish comes from propanolol, which is less selective than bisoprolol.

  • Posted

    Hi, I agree that it does stop the AF, it stopped mine anyway, but I feel like a zombie a lot of the time in fact some days I just have to go back to bed and sleep it off for a few hours, fortunately i am retired so it doesn't pose a problem regarding work, I have been on 2.5mg a day for 3 years now and I still feel like that, I take my dogs for a walk first thing in the morning and some days that and their walk in the afternoon is all I can manage, its horrible, I am glad though that it is working out well for you.

    Phoebe.

    • Posted

      So sorry to hear that phoebe, I'm on 2.5mg a day as well, but have you tried 1.25mg like derek below as well???

  • Posted

    My hospital records are marked bisoprolol intolerant and I was only taking 1.25 mg. 
    • Posted

      So sorry to hear that derek, if you are bisoprolol-intolerant, that must have been difficult...
    • Posted

      Would take whole page to list the problems:-) But nothing like as bad as Amiodarone.

       

    • Posted

      I have been feeling more and more tired and sleepy, so I have understood people struggling from bad side-effects much better now... Started taking it after my evening meal, before bed.... Hope this would work better....
    • Posted

      I tended to do that as well with several drugs. My only reservation was did I need my heart rate/BP or whatever to be lowered during the night rather than during the day. We don't know how long the effect of the drugs lasts for.

       

    • Posted

      I have had some difficulties with tiredness and sleepiness, but still trying to cope by adjusting my life style a bit:

      1) Went to bed at 10 pm rather than 12 midnight and was so refreshed the next day, will do this whenever it's too difficult to cope,

      2) Tried a lot of raw onions though I have always avoided them, and I felt so energized and ache in my left ankle and calf seemed to have been better after that,

      3) I am very bad at breathing (somehow tend to hold it frequently), so trying and be careful with my breathing

      I still would like to stick to medicine as it is so so comfortable to live without that wierd feeling of AF and breathlessness... It's been tolerable enough for me so far... My pulse has been like, 45 > 56 > 59 > 47 > 52 since I started taking this medicine, but the doctor said it would be coming back to be fast enough again, and I have had a very good difference between top and bottom blood pressures...

      Now I am taking my bisoprolol around 6 pm with my Warfarine, but I have asked the doctor to change my anticoagulant to something else that would not need frequent blood tests!!!

    • Posted

      I just checked and onions are low in Vitamin K so your binge on them will not have affected your INR.

      I had a Greek dish with a lot of garlic and it had quite an effect on my INR test the next day.

    • Posted

      Ohhhh I didn't even think of that, but it just happened the kebab shop didn't listen to my request and put a lot of onions, but I thought, well, I will try these, as I was so hungry and most of the salad was onions, and then next day I felt so envigourated!!!

  • Posted

    P.S. I have been more and more sleepy and tired a few days later, I have understood what other people are saying about fatigue, sleepiness, being home-bound, etc. Still, feeling much better with my heart beat almost perfect, I have started taking this medicine after my evening meal, before bed. Hope my sleepiness and tiredness would improve..... A deeper and better sleep could be a bonus.....
    • Posted

      I feel more and more tired and because of it, I tend to be more cranky on family members, which is not good... Sad thing is, my arrhythmia from AF is coming back even on bisopronolol... I might want to go back to propranolol after all, as it didn't make me feel this tired...

    • Posted

      It's been more than a week since I started taking bisoprolol, and now I have stopped taking it and gone back to propranolol... I felt great on first couple of days, that's why I started this discussion, but tiredness and loss of concentration came gradually in my case along with crankiness due to tiredness, and I thought I shouldn't be making this much effort to adjust myself to this medicine... This would be my last post for this discussion... Thank you very much for joining me...

    • Posted

      Natsu, sometimes it takes a few weeks or even months for some side effects of Beta Blockers to appear...

      Sometimes a drug seems good for the first few days, or even weeks, but then you start to feel 10s of new things regarding thinking, anxiety, depression, dizziness, tiredness, breathing problems, weak circulation, pain in some body parts, headachess, brain fog, memory problems...

    • Posted

      Hello bob, I think that's exactly how I became aware of my tiredness and sleepiness, I have to work sitting at my desk and I just couldn't cope any more, now I am on propranolol again, as it was prescribed for anxiety long time ago, and I have known that it did not make me feel as tired as with bisopronol...

    • Posted

      I tried Bisoprolol, Atenolol, Metoprolol and Nebivolol.

      I had huge breathing problems on Atenolol and Metoprolol (they are the old generation of BBs, not too selective so they do affect lungs and cause breathing problems in some people, as if you breathe too slow all the time and you get a feeling as if your lungs are sleeping, they don't want to breathe, as if your central nervous system isn't sending signals to your lungs to breathe. So you drop like from 10 breaths per minute to 6-7 breaths. Very strange and unpleasant feeling).

      On Bisoprolol, I had lesser breathing problems (but still significant problems). But Bisoprolol caused a lot of other side effecets also: being very tired, heavy legs, all your body is tired, you get easily tired after walking for 5-10 minutes (body not getting enough of oxygen due to lowered heart rate and due to too slow/too shallow breathing all the time), on some days (1-2 times per week) you would feel as if a truck hit you the whole day and you couldn't get out of bed all day, also it caused anxiety (even though it should lower anxiety) and being nervous all the time etc.

      Nebivolol/Bystolic (the newest Beta Blocker) had the lowest amount of side effects for me. No tiredness, no breathing problems, much more energy. But it caused huge dizziness all the time for some reason, so again I could tolerate like only 1/3rd or 1/4th of the smallest dose...

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