Started Bisoprolol 3 weeks ago (2.5mg), brought BP down to 109/72 pulse 49. Doc decided to cut me back to 1.25mg BP was stabilising around 125/78 pulse 51.
However, tonight felt a bit heady BP coming in at 172/93 pulse 53.
Too late to contact my surgery, do you think I should take another 1.25mg of Bisoprolol to bring it back down before speaking to doc on Monday?
Either ring the 111 NHS no. or get in touch with a late night pharmacy. Are you sure that BP rate is still high, it does go up and down naturally depending on what we're doing? Do some deep breathing to see if you can bring it down.
Jean
Thanks for your response Jeanjeannie.
Pharmacy recommended taking another 1.25mg given I started with 2.5mg. Then contact my GP on Monday.
I am an extremely anxious person, which tends to raise my BP.
I will check it later on-trying not to get too fixated on it 😬
Anxiety can definitely shoot your BP right up. I've had mine go that high during a panic attack. It usually takes an hour or more to settle
Thanks Qualipop, I suffer from anxiety, so I know it affects my BP.
Naively, I thought Beta Blockers would stop that happening.
Afraid not. Anxiety will take over whatever tablets you take.
Bisoprolol is not a blood pressure tablet so if you have issues with BP in addition to AF then GP should prescribe you something separate to address the BP.
Thanks for your response.
Apparently, Beta Blockers such as Bisoprolol are used to lower BP, in addition to treating AF.
In my wife's case she was prescribed Bisoprolol for her AF and a separate drug for her slightly high BP. Her AF medication has been changed many times over the years but her BP medication kept the same.
Just looking at the Sandoz Bisoprolol patient information leaflet and the first of three uses is to treat high blood pressure.Granted it has other uses, but it certainly is part of the palette of hypertension medication.
the NHS disagrees with you 
Bisoprolol
Brand names: Cardicor, Congescor. Find out how bisoprolol treats high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart failure, and how to take it.
Beta blockers aren't given for BP so much these days, I gather a raised BP can occur for many reasons and 172/93 isn't, in itself, so very high, so long as that isn't the sustained rate. Were there any other reasons why it might have gone up like that? Mine can go high for various reasons (I think everyones is the same). I have to take mine three times before eating breakfast to get a stable reading, for example.
Steve
I have had hypertension for decades and the first medication prescribed was Atenolol Others have been added over the years.
What complicates things is complete heart block. As soon as that was fixed with a pacemaker, the GP increased the dose of Atenolol to 50 mg daily.
PVCs have now addd more problems and I struggle to maintain a heart rate high enough to keep my blood pressure at a reasonable level.
The extraordinary thing is that the consultant dealing with it firstly stopped the Atenolol and substituted 1.25 mg Bisoprolol daily.
Despite the PVC problem, they have increased the dose all the way up to 10 mg daily which according to them is equivalent to 100 mg Atenolol.
The PVCs are still there, 100 per hour, the GP says raising Bisoprolol doesn't make sense and a cardiologist friend advised stopping altogether.
Confusion is an understatement.
I'm going with the high dose recommendation for now until something is done to get the pacemaker back to delivering 70 BPM instead of 40 or less when it feels like it.
Despite all the advice in the PIL, no-one from the prescribers has looked at my BP or checked for side effects despite 10 mg being the maximum dose.
100/50 BP and 30 BPM are not unusual.
I do take regular readings, but keeling over is a constant worry.
Thank you for your response Tigger.
I take 3 readings - if they are consistently high, I wait then take another couple later on.
I was concerned because over the last week or so, my BP was stabilising around 125/75 pulse 50 on 1.25 mg Bisoprolol.
I suppose I was surprised to find my readings are starting to creep up.
I started Lansoprazole a couple of days ago to help with acid reflux. I read they can raise your BP! 🤷♀️
I am struggling with the side effects of the meds.
Dabigatron makes me feel as though my insides are on fire, plus I have acid reflux.
Bisoprolol, it’s the fatigue that does me.
I shall persevere another few days before contacting my GP.
Perhaps what you're finding is what I think I have discovered, which is what doctors do when they haven't got enough clues about what might be the best thing actually to do. Getting those clues is illusive and might require, say, a biopsy of the heart muscle, or a stress cardiac MRI, things that are often not proportionate to the problem. This means that heart treatments seem to me to be as much much an art based on practice and experience than a science. Beta blockers are given a first-line treatment, I would think, because they do often help and are generally fairly safe (compared with anti-arrhythmic drugs, for example).
Also, the effect of different doses of beta-blockers is, in the case of bisoprolol, at least, not proportional, so my 1.25mg might be equivalent to your 5mg, for example; and doubling a dose won't necessarily double its effect (in fact, it doesn't, in my case, far from it).
Steve
I take 3 readings - if they are consistently high, I wait then take another couple later on.
I was concerned because over the last week or so, my BP was stabilising around 125/75 pulse 50 on 1.25 mg Bisoprolol.
I suppose I was surprised to find my readings are starting to creep up.
I am struggling with the side effects of the meds.
Dabigatron makes me feel as though my insides are on fire, plus acid reflux.
Bisoprolol, it’s the fatigue.
I shall persevere another few days before contacting my GP.
Poor you. That's a rare side effect if it is the dabigatran, I gather. It can cause tiredness, I have read, which apixaban, doesn't at all for me. I am, so far, lucky with my drugs as they don't seem to cause much at all in the way of side effects. Acid reflux is a devil and, although it is easy to control with a PPI drug like esomeprazole, I'd recommend trying everything else first, if only because, once you're on those, you'll be on them for ever unless the cause of the reflux is removed.
I hope you get your BP back down. I wonder what causes that?
Steve
Anxiety 😟 I really suffer from it.
Join the club, although it doesn’t affect my BP especially. It’s a terrible affliction to cope with at times
Steve
It most certainly is-no matter what books, counsellor, or breathing exercises you enlist to help. Anxiety is definitely a “terrible affliction”. It is such a vicious circle…
On another note: Despite me trying to live a healthy lifestyle- there is a history of hypertension in my family, which is possibly something I have genetically inherited.
That sounds highly likely. Yes - on the anxiety front, there're fortunes being made in trying to help it; yet little helps much at all.
Steve
How many readings did you take? I take three at intervals of a couple of minutes if my first is too high and generally find my BP has gone lower by the third. Before tinkering with your meds you should take three readings a day over a week to get an average. That is how I have avoided having a dose of BP meds that literally nearly floored me!
Thanks for your response.
I do take 3 readings, if they are consistently high, I wait then take another couple later on.
I was concerned because over the last week or so, my BP was stabilising around 125/75 pulse 50 on 1.25 mg Bisoprolol.
I suppose I was surprised to find my readings are starting to creep up.
I am struggling with the side effects of the meds.
Dabigatron makes me feel as though my insides are on fire, plus acid reflux.
Bisoprolol, it’s the fatigue.
I shall persevere another few days before contacting my GP.
🤷♀️
Oh dear, don’t know if you’ve tried anything else but there are alternatives. Apixaban seems to be gentlest on the stomach and there are other BP and rate lowering drugs. I couldn’t function with a rate of 50 bpm but we are all different. Good luck
Thanks Buffafly, I shall definitely be speaking to my GP.
I do believe, pulse rate of 50 is making me feel washed out.
Hi
I was lightheaded at 51 H/R Day avge REST.
I feel better at 60s Day. I'm always 47 avge Night.
Adjust to be 60. BP just OK at 93.
It is a balancing act.
cheri JOY. 74. (NZ)
Beta blocker 
Beta Blocker
Beta Blocker quandary 
Advice from your experience please. 
PAF to persistent
