Beta Blocker
My cardiologist recommended I get on metropolol. My blood pressure, cholesterol and pulse are all normal and I have no chest pains, shortness of breath or other heart problem symptoms. My EKG showed some irregularity, and an ultrasound showed mild Plaqueing in one carotid artery. I have read that once you start a beta blocker you're on it for the rest of your life. Also, there can be some pretty serious side effects. Any thoughts?
Thank you for sharing your personal experience with us, and for your question -- it is a good one. There are many in this community on beta blockers. So it is my hope that one or more of them will chime in here with there thoughts. In the mean time, I would think that your doctor should be able to answer your question best, as he/she knows YOU best. If you want to make doubly sure that you really need this medicine before starting it, you may benefit by calling your doctor's office and posting your question just as you did above. What do you think? John. heart-failure.net community moderator. I was told the same when first dignosed (inaccurately) the bb did nothing. I lost 6 months of adequate care and a viable tx plan before being properly diagnosed but by then moved from stage II to stage III. My advice is a second opinion. Start emtresto or spirnolactone etc. Best wishes. Laura i was on the same medication and it slowed my heart rate down, I mean way down. At one point I had headaches because due to the medication my heart wasnt pumping enough blood to my brain. They put me on Tylenol for headache but after while I got dependence on them. The only way I could stop that was to go cold turkey and deal with the headaches. They soon went away. I was later referred to a neurologist for my headaches because they kept coming back and she told me not to take tylenol more than three days because they can mess up your liver and other issues. Of course, we are all different and our bodies react differently. If your heart rate goes too low, check with your doctor and ask him about it and if he can put you on another medication that will not slow your heart rate down. However, consider the fact that if your heart is beating too fast, that's another situation. There's nothing wrong with taking some medication for life. In this modern day, traces of cholesterol plaques can be found on "looked healthy" teens. Counter-medication is needed in those cases don't you think?
There's also a picture circulating about someone having AIDS in the 80's where survivability rate is like less than a year, but he lived till today a happy old man because of his life-long medications.
Trust the doctors, they have collective knowledge from even before the written history. You can get second/third opinions to be sure.
I'm no doctor so I don't know about taking metoprolol. I use Concor which seems similar and the dose is upped and downed I think based on my report during my monthly visit. If I feel too many low blood pressure and HR symptoms, they'll down it, and vice versa.
