AF, Sotalol & Me

[Mimibest]

I have constant AF which started after bypass surgery and found out after cardio-version I am allergic to Sotalol. Extremely allergic to Sotalol - Never, ever according to the manufacturer and other medical websites take Sotalol unless under hospital observation. It literally killed me!

[BobD Volunteer]

Sotalol is not generally recommended for AF treatment here in UK although some EPs do use it from time to time. Seems like you have been lucky.

[sotolol in reply to BobD]

Hi has anyone got anything good to say about Sotalol.

Cheers. Jo

[Mimibest]

I was very lucky and blessed - within 15 minutes of taking the pill, I knew something was wrong - I can't even explain how I felt but knew it wasn't good - hubby checked my BP and couldn't get it & said I was as grey as the brick on the outside of the house - he called ambulance and from the time they shut those doors I remember absolutely nothing for the following 5 1/2 days - I flat-lined in the emergency room and ICU 5 times the following 48 hours. Because of that I now have added damage to my left lower ventricle plus the AFib. Thanks for the response.

[RexH in reply to Mimibest]

Good to hear you were OK .

I was prescribed sotalol , and my heart rate was low naturally. And one tablet sent my heart very low, went grey and felt very unwell, like a very bad hypo ( have type 1 diabetes) but knew it wasn't.

It nearly killed me, and kept affecting me for about seven days.

Had to have ablation , as medication not the way to go.

[hallpatty2549]

Thanks for sharing your horrifying experience. My cardiologist had talked about putting me on Sotalo & minimized the risk. Fortunately I never tried it. Thanks for sharing & best of luck to you.

[EngMac]

There are two kinds of Sotalol - one for the top of the heart and one for the bottom and they are not to be incorrectly prescribed. Did your doctor specify which one? My heart doctor wrote a prescription for Sotalol but did not specify which one. I don't think he knows there are two kinds. He said I did not need to be in the hospital. I have a left bundle branch block which lengthens the QRT interval. I have a very low natural heart rate and I had a very bad experience with beta blockers, which can kill someone like me. Sotalol could mean flat line for me. All this my heart doctor knows yet he said a 40 mg dose would be ok. My family doctor said they do not put you in the hospital since it is too expensive and they only lose the odd person. I guess you were the odd person. I did not take the medication. Thankfully, I learned about Sotalol by reading posts on this site, which may have saved my life. Hopefully, your story will make people do their own due diligence on whatever drug is prescribed before they take it. We all can react differently to a drug and we are likely more knowledgeable about us than any doctor.

[Hidden]

Try this, and if it works for you, you won't have to take any meds:

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After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer. If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt??

Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer

[Mariacl8f]

Hi Mimiblest can I ask what happened when you took the Soralol?