pulse too low from beta-blocker?

[hartbeast]

Hello, all you good people... I am 9 months post-ablation (shouldn't my new heart be born by now hahaha?). I've had very few actual Afib episodes, but I still get ectopics and sometimes the occasional unexplained run of elevated heart rate, which is sometimes marked "unclassified" on my Kardia. Anxiety makes it worse, so my cardiologist recently prescribed atenolol 25 mg for occasional "pill in pocket" use to slow things down. I took one last night and my Apple Watch is telling me that my heart rate was hanging out at 42 bpm.

My only other meds are daily Xarelto (20 mgs) and I have flecainide/metoprolol available as PIP that I'm supposed to take if an Afib episode lasts over 30 minutes, which has only happened once in the past few months. That time, it did handle the Afib within a couple of hours. Sometimes I have had Afib show up and if I take ignatia homeopathically right away, it stops within a few minutes (or maybe those are just Afib episodes that would have only lasted a few minutes in any case - my personal jury is still out on homeopathy).

But back to my pulse: is 42 too low? I think I'm on the lowest atenolol and don't think it can be split. I don't feel bad - perhaps very mild dizziness.

Thanks for any experience you can share.

[BobD Volunteer]

Anything below 60 is bradycardia unless you are an olympic athlete. Try not to focus on things so much as anxiety builds that way. Go by how you feel rather than what any machine might tell you.

[Hidden]

My HR went down to 34 ish on Bisoprolol 2.5mg about a year after my ablation.

It was picked up on a 24 hour monitor.

I received conflicting advice from the professionals and decided to go with the "stop taking bisoprolol " advice from my GP

My HR is now mid 60's at rest, but can still go down to the low 50's and runs of SVT for a few seconds a day.

But I am happier not taking the beta blockers

[hartbeast]

Thanks so much for your replies. I’ll let my cardiologist know. Appreciate hearing of others’ experience, and grateful for this forum.

[Horse57]

So sorry that is happening. I have the exact issue when I take a beta blocker. My cardio told me to cut them in half even if they aren’t scored. It works for me. When I cut them it’s not always a “perfect” cut down the middle but it works for me. I take bystolic when I need it which is rarely. I keep my HR in the 60s at all times. I actually take clonodine 0.1. It has been the best for me. When my BP starts to climb some I take it and it brings it down and my pulse too. It’s rare I ever have to take the beta. I personally don’t like beta blockers.

[hartbeast in reply to Horse57]

Thanks, Horse57, I talked to my cardiologist and he suggested I go back to the metoprolol 25, but cut them in half. I hated being on the extended release metoprolol every day, but i’m hoping that taking half as much of the regular metoprolol, only when I need it, will be better. I’m not fond of beta blockers either! And if the half-dose metoprolol doesn’t work out next time, I’ll ask him about other options. We really do have to be our own guinea pigs with all this, don’t we?

[Horse57 in reply to hartbeast]

Yes we are on our own it seems! I love this forum and look forward to hearing how everyone is doing. Take good care😊