Beta blocker/Bisoprolol withdrawal and breathlessness

I have suffered similar feelings but in my case it has been around 10/11ish in the morning and I put it down to a lack of sugar in the blood and correct it by taking 1/2 glucose tablets (from Boots) as it usually occurs when walking the dog Fortunately this has always corrected the feeling. If at home I usually have a couple of biscuits and a cup of tea or a banana. I am not diabetic and get the sucrose levels checked annually.

Therefore not certain bisop is involved but best check with your consultant

As to be honest it's kind of scary when it happens.

I have encountered episodes of what I term "low blood sugar" and they have been worse since getting off the BB.  I do like you - take biscuits or a banana when I get the shaky feeling.  I know it will improve.  I was getting the shakes and rapid heartbeat when I went to get dressed in the morning and almost losing my breath.  That has now improved too (almost one month off the horrid drug).

Hi, I already take magnesium.  The hyperthyroidism has a lot of the same symptoms, so everything is tied in together.  The BB might have been masking me being hyperthyroid for awhile - maybe a few months as I got really sick in August with some parasite that came in on lettuce.  That's when I noticed the real problems with the heartbeat.  It is sporadic now and I'm improving (almost a month now).  Some of the people on this site says it may take up to 6 months to feel normal again and I think I might be one of them because I am so severely sensitive to everything.  I even take 1/2 tablets of any new supplement just to see what it does before I'll start taking it regularly. 

You have to wean off surely from Bisoprolol.

How long have you been taking it (weeks, months, years)?

If you quit cold turkey, you can suffer a stroke or heart attack (rebound high blood pressure, dangerous arrhytmias), since it is a very dangerous drug to quit.

Hi Liam, I'm sorry to hear about your battles with the medications.  I went off all medications 14 years ago, and am still alive.  But you need to wean yourself off them - cold turkey is dangerous.  I suggest you investigate the root cause of your metabolic diseases, which is hyperinsulinemia, for which the treatment is a very low carb, high fat diet.  There is plenty of information on this topic on the internet.  I switched to this style of eating several years ago, and I am sure it is the reason why I am still alive.

Hi, about your "no fight or flight" adrenaline, well, that is one of the purposes of Beta blockers.

To some extent, they make you "dead" and calm all the time.

Somewhat similar to Valium, for example, except that BBs have much stronger effect on heart and blood pressure than Valium.

For example, without BBs, a normal person will have a resting heart rate 60-70-80.

During excercise, HR will go to 120, 150 and similar.

When you are too excited (for example, watching sport, movies etc), your HR will go up too.

Now, if you are prone to tachycardia, arrhytmias and similar, those are often triggered by excercise, stress, too high excitement etc.

When you take BBs, they will block your emotions and HR of going into extremes.

Let's say that for a normal person, you will go to -100 level (of your emotions) when you are scared, stressed etc.

+0 will be a normal level.

+100 will be when you are too excited about some activity (let's say watching an important sport match).

So, for a normal person, emotions (and thus HR as a response to your emotions) will go from -100 to +100 in everyday life.

When you take BBs, they affect your Central nervous system and lots of mechanisms in brains (which eventually slow down our heart and block extreme emotions), so this way, your emotions won't go from -100 to +100 anymore, but more like from -60 to +60.

So, roughly, on BBs, you can never get as excited or as scared as a normal person. You are numb to some extent.

You won't go into extremes with emotions, you will always be closer to zero (or around a middle, when you are neither sad/scared/happy/excited)

That way, BBs are trying to prevent triggers of arrhytmias, like too much excitement, stress etc.

But also, this way BBs will slow down your heart all day long, they will protect your heart that way, plus even if you do get an episode of arrhytmia, it shouldn't last that long, and your HR should be lower during an episode than without BBs.

So, BBs have a lot of good sides and they protect people in 100s of situations.

But again, they have lots of side effects, like this emotional numbness which you have described (and I have experienced the same when I was taking BBs. I never enjoyed sport, music, love life or usual things that used to excite me, during taking BBs. For example, I was watching important matches of my team, and if my team was winning, I would just say: ok. If my team was losing, I would just say: ok.)

About how you are feeling cold, well, BBs are slowing down our hearts (Heart rate) and amount of blood pumped in each second, and thus less blood and oxygen will flow around our body.

Also, in legs, arms (especially feet and fingers) and parts of a body which are further from the heart, you will get the lowest amount of blood and oxygen (weaker circulation) and those parts can easily get cold.

For example, I used to have cold feet and hands all day long.

When I was shaking hands with people, they used to ask me: omg, why do you have such a cold hands (in the middle of a summer)?

And I was taking only 1,25 and later 0,62 Mg of Bisoprolol.

My dad takes a lot of medicines for high blood pressure, and BBs are one of them.

He is feeling cold all the time.

For example, all people are saying that it is extremely hot and they are sweating, while my dad has long sleeves all the time and just saying: I'm cold. It's quite cold today...

Since you are on a largest dose of a BB (10 and 12,5 Mg), it is understandable that you have these side effects.

Good luck

Hi Bob,

I stopped my beta blocker about 8 weeks ago. I'm still having bouts of anxiety and hot flashes from time to time and this was not my normal before beta blockers. How long did it take for you to feel normal again? Thank you for your help.

I went to the hospital for a panic attack and they put me on a beta blocker 5mg just that day! And after the second day i started getting horrible symptoms! Tight neck and chest! Arms feel swollen, strong headaches, dizziness, feel like my body isnt here, depressed, when will all this go away? :'( I feel like I have no life