Corticosteriods and palpitations

[Simon1828]

Hi All,

This is my first post here, I've had asthma all my life and it's usually been well controlled but for the last year it has been very bad with a number of trips to A&E + stays in hospital.

Each time I've had an exacerbation which I'm currently having at the moment I've been put on prednisolone and also had my inhaler changed to fostair. The issue is that whenever I take either of these I get terrible palpitations all the time and a very fast heart rate 100-110/120 at rest (normally 70-80), I also get terrible anxiety which does not help the heart rate.

When my asthma is well controlled I take a different corticosteroid inhaler (seretide 125) as this does not give me any side effects.

Having just started another course of prednisolone (40mg) I'm preparing for the palpitations and anxiety, my question is if I should be concerned about these palpitations or if I'm doing damage to my heart. I've raised this before while overnight in the hospital and they've never seemed that concerned and have put it down to the medications. I don't have any heart issues that I'm aware of, is it safe to ignore these side effects?

Thanks,

Simon

[Helen0304]

Hi Simon. I get palpitations and shakes when I take 2 puffs of Fostair 100/6. If I only take one then I'm ok. So I take one puff when I feel that my asthma is under control but two puffs if I am having a flare up. Unrelated to asthma, I get bad palpitations when I drink caffeinated coffee. I mentioned this to a cardiac consultant a few years ago and was told that I could go on to have heart problems if I keep putting the caffeine into my body and causing palpitations. (I now drink decaff and have solved the issue!) In conclusion I'm not commenting on corticosteroids as such but just that a doctor said to me to avoid getting palpitations. Hope this helps in some way.

[ChrissieMons]

Steroids can give you the shakes and caffeine makes them worse and keeps you awake at night, so I too take decaff now. Mind you, there is caffeine in lots of other stuff so while you're on Pred, you need to avoid coke, chocolate and so on.

The anxiety is a different issue and if you get that sorted you will probably feel better all round.