Metoprolol. Tapering off. Side effects. Horrible drug!
Posted , 123 users are following.
Metoprolol has been the worst medication I've ever been on. After a year of not knowing what was making me sick we found out it's this poison. I have never suffered so much and now after so much I found out it was this medication which I was given for hypertension. I've always ran but high and I believe I in fact have white coast hypertension I have MS so it's hard to know what's wha. Unclearly this drug ruined my life. I was 5"8 145lbs after losing a lot of weight from the pesky steroids I was given initially for MS then this drug in one year (despite healthy eating) packed on 30lbs and gave me a list of horrific side effects to include swelling chest pressure burning in arms sleep disturbances extreme dizziness depression I never thought possible. I'm slowly tapering off as no one warns you how risky stopping this drug is. Into week 2 of taper and it's hard
I have a tough time with MS but was never this sick
Also doctors hand this crap out like nothing despite FDA warnings. Anyone else go through this? I can't wait to be rid of this poison in me. My anxiety is off the charts
I can't believe I agreed to take this Med. I trusted my doctor. Never again. Have been to ER very sick 3 times. Even ER doc said it's not a good Med to treat HTN of any kind
Thank you for your time
14 likes, 576 replies
angela1985 Tee19
Posted
It has taken me 10 months to wean off of metoprolol. I too ended up in the ER after following dr advice to abruptly stop. I'm just 10 days off completely and am having bidy aches and pains, headache and nausea. Anyone else know how long this phase lasts? Joint pain is stopping me from light exercise. I did find research that eluded beta blockers also block pain receptors so I'm assuming this is the cause. Thanks for any advice!
AK0701 angela1985
Posted
I ended up in ER after 2 missed doses of metoprolol. I switched to Atenolol and while it was better still had too many side effects. I weaned myself off and then gave my doctor no choice but to leave me off. but now I'm on day 8 and I had my heart racing and high blood pressure at times. I still have back most of the time and chest pain on and off. my advice is run away from these medications. they are awful. did you wean at all after ER? did they give you something different? they just prescribed me Norvasc but I am hesitant because reviews are worse than Atenolol. the only good thing is I can stop the Norvasc without weaning. some people say 3 weeks the rebound happens and some had it for months. it's very frustrating. I'm still dealing with it. I only took metoprolol about 2 weeks and atenolol 5 weeks. still enough for me to have severe symptoms. I felt like I had like Lupus or Flu. they even ran all my markers and they were negative. I wish you the best
angela1985 AK0701
Posted
thanks for sharing your experience. I'm hoping this phase passes sooner. I wonder if anyone had tried CBD oil to help?
holly9035 angela1985
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I'm 10 days off too. my joints hurt so bad I can barely open my hands. I can't sleep,my heart is racing, horrible headaches. my whole body hurts and I feel like I have the flu. today is my day 11. this is so scary. hopefully it all goes away soon.
holly9035 angela1985
Posted
I'm 2 weeks off and having horrible anxiety/adreneline.adrenaline. and else experience this. I can't even sleep and my pulse is like 110 when I'm trying to sleep. I hope this goes away. im very scared
chris26350 holly9035
Posted
I'm sorry to hear that you're going through the same hell that I am going through too , hang in there. My cardiologist gave me metropolol 50mg (bid) last April 2019 for BP spikes (180/110) and palpitations (122 bpm). I am now starting to wean off it too. I've been getting rebound high bp (180/100) and my cardiologist won't give me something for the blood pressure. I had many trips to the ER and the ER doctor got really annoyed seeing me like every other day. I got a second opinion and my other cardiologist started me on Losartan 50mg (since two weeks ago) and bp spikes looks controlled for now , praise the Lord!
My doctor also gave me Lexotan (benzo) to be used during very anxious moments. I hope you'll feel better soon.
holly9035 chris26350
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hey. thanks for replying. my doctor put my on losartin yesterday so I'm only on day 2 of that. I was having extreme headaches and dizziness and nausea from the losartin. did you get that and does it go away? it didn't lower my blood pressure but it's only been 2 days. does it start to work better the longer you take it? I've been off the metoprolol for 18 days today. still going through stuff. was hospitalized the other day for 145/115. pulse 150.i can't get my pulse under 100 resting. ugh how long am I gotta go through this. I stay in bed. I have no quality of life...plz let me know
holly9035 chris26350
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is that the only symptoms your having is just the blood pressure spikes? I'm having severe headaches, nausea, adreneline, anxiety, flu symptoms, pains all over body. its insane
chris26350 holly9035
Posted
It used to be BP spikes (5 times in all and always 180/110) + palpitations (110), now I'm very thankful to Jesus that I only get 110 palps (must be the Losartan controlling the bp at 120/80 too since starting it 2 weeks ago) I was actually very happy when I saw the BP reading , glory to God !). I also have sleep problems (I wake up every 3 or 4 hours and have trouble going back to sleep). Anxiety ( I always think of the very worst scenarios e.g. like my wife getting into an accident while driving , kids getting kidnapped etc). Legs and arms shaking, chest and head throbbing (get headaches too).
I'd like to warn everyone to very cautious from using melatonin sleep supplement when you're in bad shape (depressed, unfit). it gave me asthma like symptoms , took 2 hours to breathe normal , i tried it 3 times to make sure it was the culprit ( 3 times i had to endure breathlessness that got relieved by sitting and putting my arms in a table (leaning forward). If I can return back in time I wouldn't even touch BBs. 😦
chris26350 holly9035
Posted
For your Losartan question, first week it gave me mild headaches, both legs cramping and triggering restless leg syndrome (not sure if its the BB though) no nausea try taking it with a little food maybe?(I 'm on omeprazole 20mg /day (maintenance for GERD). Week 2 on Losartan I feel much better. If in case you get constipated, 7 okra pods (steamed or boiled or mix with your soup) will fix that (take them with your breakfast). Good luck and I am glad that they gave you something for your blood pressure too.
chris26350 Tee19
Posted
Hi all. I hope everyone is doing better and I'd like to give some encouragement to anyone who like me has been going through very difficult withdrawal symptoms from metropolol. I asked my doctor if I can just swap metropolol with another beta blocker while weaning and just like what mike suggested on his posts, I went with Atenolol 25mg once a day. I tried weaning off metropolol but the continued comnsumption of the drug is literally squeezing the life out of me (breathing problems; insomnia anxiety you name it I have it). This is my first day and I'm happy to report that I feel much better on atenolol. I did some research and like what mike said , atenolol seems to be least likely to cause Central Nervous System side effects insomnia being the worst ( with insomnia - your symptoms will only get worse - fast lane to zombie land). The supposedly reason behind this is that it's water soluble unlike metropolol which is fat soluble and it crosses the BBB (blood brain barrier) hence the side effects in our brains). Please keep posting any advice you can give and thank you all for the your helpful posts. God bless everyone!
AK0701 chris26350
Posted
Hi Chris...I was on metoprolol about 2 weeks. I couldn't take the symptoms and my doctor switched me to Atenolol for 5 weeks. while Atenolol was not as bad as metoprolol I still had numerous side effects. flu like symptoms, nausea to the point I dropped 18 lbs in 2 months. 1st 9 came off in 6 days from metoprolol. like you the ER doctor is probably very annoyed seeing me as well. They dont even care anymore as they have just labeled anxiety and call it a day. I was getting terrible back pain, chest pain, headaches and palpitations. I'm now off 17 days of Atenolol and while I feel physically stronger I find myself with high heart rate sometimes 110 to 115 just sitting down. I get chest pain on and off. Back pain is not as bad but still get bad flares at night. my headache sits on left temple and radiates to back of my head. sharp shoulder pains and dizziness. For the most part the nausea is gone. the most bothersome to me is the anxiousness it leaves, the terrible terrible insomnia, and high heart rate. I never had problems with anxiety before starting beta blockers but I do now. ER and doctors in general dont understand what these medications do to us. I am so afraid to return to cardiologist in 2 weeks and they will want me to start beta blocker again if my heart rate continues high. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes.
chris26350 AK0701
Posted
thanks for replying ak0701 . very well said each time i went to ER the doctor said its anxiety and he referred me to a neurologist. i just found out that atenolol (bad combi for losartan) can increase potassium so i changed it to 3.1 mg carvedilol once a day. keep soldiering on !
holly9035 chris26350
Posted
ok I'm confused. lol. so you stopped the losartan and went on atenolol? I thought you felt good on the lasartan. and then you went from the atenolol to carvedilol?
chris26350 holly9035
Posted
hi holly! sorry for the confusion I'm still on Losartan . I have observed that the first few hours of taking the Losartan are where headaches, some GI discomfort, leg cramps , dizziness come on. The dizziness has greatly subsided but its still there and I'm sure its because of the initial full on effect of the Losartan because I monitor my BP every hour and it falls 105/75 after 2 to 3 hours of taking it. By 5 hours my bp stabilizes at a comfy 120/80. The reason why i said atenolol and losartan are a bad combo is that Losartan has a potassium sparing effect and atenolol can also increase potassium in the blood and that can't be too good according to research i've seen in the net (one site said "goodrx" i think said it doesn't but ncbi sites says they saw in one patient and also on another website so i played it safe. I'm happy to report that I got through the day with only 3.125 mg of carvedilol . yaay! I will continue for 2 or 4 weeks with this and then take every other day for 2 weeks and then get off it completely . have a great day everyone!