Bisoprolol buddies

Hi All,

I was put on Bisoprolol 2.5mg in December 2012, as I told my doctor I felt breathless when walking up slight hills. I have a very slight irregular heartbeat, which after numerous tests they thought could have caused a stroke I had in November 2011. I take sindrome (Spanish Warfrin) 1mg daily, plus cholesterol tablets. I have never suffered with high blood pressure or high cholestrol but understand they are to help prevent another stroke. After reading these comments I realise my tiredness and weight gain could be caused by the bisoprolol which I do not really understand why I am taking, it has not helped me in any way that I can tell, I think I should discuss with my doctor urgently, do you agree? Thanks

Hi I have stopped taking 1.25g bisoprolol for 4 months and feel alot better for it. I have noticed that there is a direct relation between stomach inflammation and arrhythmia and diet

See link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-352460/Stomach-bug-link-irregular-heartbeat.html

Pat

Hi guys,

I have previously chatted with Elizabeth on this forum about Bisoprol. As previously stated my wife suffered a massive heart attack in Jan 2013, spent 17 days in ICU and a further 27 days in hospital learning to talk, walk, read and write as she suffered a front lobal brain injury due to the lack of oxygen to her brain.

Later on she was diagnosed to have 50% damage to her heart. On returning home she had 2 amazing therapists come to our home for four months twice a week.

My wife has been called a miracle woman having now fully recovered with no heart damage or angina.

She was taking so many pills, 18 a day that I had to make a stock sheet to make sure that I did not run out.

We have been given the all clear by both her Cardiologist and Neurologist..

I have been concerned for some time regarding the side effects that all the pills have and especially Bisoprol, I would suggest that any one taking any pills read the leaflet in the box to see what side effects they mav and could have.

Although told initially the 18 pills a day would be for life, we have now whittled them down to just 5 drugs and one lot of drops.

My wife was taking Bisoprol 2.5 mg in the morning with breakfast the result being most of the effects that you have all mentioned, she would wake up 9 / 10am and then want to go back to sleep again.

I decided to try taking 1.25 mg in the evening with supper, so that any effects would be during the night while asleep, I checked daily myself her blood pressure to make certain that it did not go up and it did not.

The change in my wife is quite remarkable as she now wakes up around 7.30 / 8 am does not go back to sleep even in the afternoons and virtually all the side effects are not present at least when she is awake.

I have since contacted both my GP and Cardiologist as regards of what I have done and they are both happy with this, when I saw our doctor the other day I said why is she taking Bisoprol and some other drugs when she is well and has no heart trouble and he said for safety measures to help not possibly having another heart attack. so you pays your money and takes your choice.

If you are a strong character as I am, I have found that I can get things done both in Hospitals and with doctors. the problem is that most of us just do and take what they say as read, don't do this, do your research and go armed with your facts and beliefs written down.

Good luck all Ken.

Your post is inspiring. I am so pleased that your wife has made such a wonderful recovery. You have been amazing . I hope that all goes well for you both in the future.

Thank you Elizabeth, you too.

Finally I got the doctor to to take me off Ramipril. The AF, severe stomach upsets and dry cough disappeared. He has put me on Losatarne instead. He is till reluctant to alter my Bisiprolol dosage so that I still have gastric disturbances (nowhere near as severe as before) and swollen ankles. I am going to tackle him about this shortly. I also suffer from severe back ache. Has anyone any experience of medications that may cause this? The pursuit of knowledge goes on.

I'm off rampril and bisoprolol and am now on atenolol 100 mg! I had severe backache whilst on the former meds. I feel loads better with the atenolol. My head isn't puddled and I don't feel as if I'm walking in treacle however the backache is hell. I can only stand for about 10 mins and then I have to sit down. I also have developed a slight cough which comes and goes. I seem to have something catching the back of my throat,I suppose like asthma. I think it's the side effects of atenolol. Apparently because both the atenolol and the bisoprolol are beta blockers,they are likely to cause similar side effects!

I have never had backache before taking bisoprolo&rampril and have consistently asked my previous doctor about it but never got any response. It was ignored and other things discussed. I asked the cardiologist,but again the question wasn't answered. My present doctor said the only way to find out was to stop taking the rampril! Well that hasn't stopped the backache,so I reckon it must be the beta blocker. I'm fed up .i realise the risks of not taking medication but I'm sorely tempted. When I return from holiday it's a visit to my doctors and then maybe I will at the very least lower the atenolol intake.

I hope you get some answers from your doc. I just want to know what is causing this acute backache...is it the A/F is it medication.? I hope you will keep posting.

Hi Elizabeth,

It's all very frustrating for everyone.

I thought i would let you know that my wife also has a bad back ache, but it has only just started, so it may have nothing to do with drugs like Bisioprol & Rampril.

I have been taking Atenenol 100 mg for many years with no side effects.

Hi,

I haven't posted on here for a long time but have been reading everyones posts!

I had ablation surgery nearly a year ago, however, the doctors tried to get my heart to go into tachy and it typically wouldn't go, they tried for 2 hours to make it with a variety of drugs but its very stubborn... I started to think I'd made up all of the palpitations but luckily an ECG week long recorder I had done a few years ago had caught it so they do believe me!

Anyway, the reason I am posting on here is firstly to respond to paige56201, as I am 26 and had my first lot of beta blockers whilst at University, if needs be you can get a doctors note to explain that you will feel tired and have extenuating circumstances just in case.

Secondly, I have been to see my cardiologist recently and been upped on my dosage to 10mg of bisoprolol and an additional 100mg of Flecainide, is anyone else on this combination? I seem to be tired a lot of the time and the flutters haven't really stopped either but I am hesitant to tell my cardiologist this as he'll just give me more medication! He has offered to do the ablation again but there's no guarantee of it working this time either and last time I had a major re-bleed afterwards!

Charlotte xx

My backache is often dependent on the severity of fluid retention I'm experiencing, some anti-hypertensives are more of a (fluid retention) problem than others, for me.

I recently underwent a hysterectomy and had to go on anti-hypertensives because the surgery couldn't go ahead because my bp was too high. Within a couple of weeks I put on 10lbs, which then disappeared over the course of a week about 8 weeks after I stopped the meds.

Another thing, not nec relevant to backache, but relevant to some cases of hypertension generally, is Autonomic Dysfunction... some people experience high blood pressure because they have high adrenaline levels... which are actually caused by low blood pressure!

The body recognises the low bp, then tries to rectify it by increasing adrenaline. The adrenaline, in turn, pushes the bp up, sometimes way too much.

In these circumstances, anti-hypertensives may be exaccerbating a problem that actually needs sorting out by increasing salt intake, increasing fluid intake and building up leg muscles.

Don't suddenly start shoveling salt onto your food without getting checked out first! The fluid intake and muscle building sound like good things to follow though, anyway.

I may have this going on, as part of possible Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (aka Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or Hypermobility Syndrome) though I don't have really obvious joint hypermobility problems.

Amongst other things, I react very badly to the bp drugs. I also tend to experience severe pooling of blood in my hands and feet (amongst other weird and wonderful symptoms).

If anyone has odd symptoms that don't seem to fit a clear diagnosis, check out Autonomic Dysfunction, Vasovagal Response, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos.

I've been in the system for 15 years and might finally be getting close to being diagnosed properly.

I hope this info may help anyone who's also not fitting into the neat little diagnostic boxes so beloved of the medical community!

Hi all just to rant about doctors , still waiting since January for my second heart scan since I've been on 7.5 mg bisoprolol . Had my appointment through for march now they just cancelled it untill June . Don't they understand how stressed we are . Feel rough today think it's from my 5 pints of larger last Saturday , felt fine and not drunk any alcohol since new year .

Hi all, i'm 19 and have been on various amounts of bisporolol for 6 months due to a horrific episode of palpitations, tightness of the chest and hard of breathing later being told was SVT.

After this attack i was put on 5mg of bisoprolol and Aspirin (incase i had AF) and after a week of taking this dosage of bisoprolol i was getting very bad side effects of, low blood pressure causing me to have light headedness, dissiness, headrushes to almost the point of fainting but the worst of all was migraines.

I waited until i had a meeting with my specialist to discuss this which was a very bad idea as i ended upgetting more side effects as time went of. I felt lathargic 24/7 (i work full time in a pub so had been very difficult) when i didnt have work i would put off any tiny errand i had to do and didnt want to move off the sofa. weight gain -have always been very slim but now have a podgy belly, cold hands and feet. 3 months ago my dose was reduced to 2.5 and then again to 1.25 as i am opting for ablation so i can get rid of these nasty drugs.

when i was reduced to 1.25, luckily all side effects had gone or so i thought. it occured to about 3 weeks ago that i have a constant runny nose for the last 2 months, sometimes it being blocked or just generally runny. it doesnt bother me though, i think of it this way,

I would rather have a runny nose than having horrible attacks all the time.

It may sound silly but i have got a lot of comfort from reading your storys and knowing i am not the only one (thats how it seems in my mind haha) so i thought i would share mine incase there were any youngsters like me out there who needed a piece of mind and to know their not the only one!

I advise anyone who is having really bad symptoms to just go to their gp and request the dose to be lowered!!! especially if youre in a case like me where you've had/got to wait ages inbetween hospitals/appointments/procedures/

i am in for ablation on the 28th april so hopefully for me i will be done with bisoprolol and go back to a normal way of living!

i sincerely hope all of you get to, too! my way of thinking has changed dramatically due to this experience and even though i had all these horrible side effects like all of you, i tried to think positive

Good luck to all of you

Hi

I was getting unpleasant symptoms on just 1.25mg of Bisoprolol for my SVT (and still have had three episodes since starting it) so have been back to the GP. I'd been waiting to see the cardiologist for 5 months (This is in Wales) . The GP emailed the consultant and got an immediate reply saying to try Verapramil. I have also just had the Cardiology appt for two months time. I'm not keen on taking meds for the rest of my life, so am thinking that ablation is my best bet but I guess it seems reasonable to try the alternative medication.

I have taken bisoporol 2.5mg for about 3 years but in the last 6 months started suffering with headaches tiredness and general feeling of being not right - I have had blood tests done which are all clear so am coming to the conclusion that it is the medication as I feel worse in the hours after taking it. Has anyone else suffered from delayed side affects like this?

Hello

I have had two failed ablations for AFib and during this time period I was on 1.25 Bisoprolol and had no ill effects from it. However, following an emergency arrhythmia and subsequent pacemaker, I now have to take 7.5mg Bisoprolol. I would take it in the morning after breakfast. The immediate effect was unbelievable and I could hardly put one foot in front of the other, feeling as if my limbs had lead weights on them. I wanted to do nothing more than sit or lie down. After two months of this, I found this website and the best advice ever - take the dose either early evening or bedtime when no demands are made for walking or working. I have since had the dose reduced to 5 mg as that is all I was prepared to take and I am waiting for an AV node ablation when I hope to reduce it further. Up until reading these posts, I thought it was just me feeling like this and I have felt so encouraged to find fellow sufferers. Many thanks all.