ok, so I have always had palpitations of some sort through most of my life. Over the last year or two they have changed and become more frequent. After seeing my GP and a Cariologist, I have been diagnosed with Paroxysmal AF. I have had an echocardiogram and all is well.
I have therefore been given bisoprolol to take, although I have not actually taken it as yet as feel very nervous about taking a beta blocker. As I don’t have symptoms all the time, I cant get my head around taking this medication. I am now just about getting my head around the fact that I have AF.
Has anyone got any advice they can give me?
Many thanks.
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Cooksters44
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Hi Cooksters44, It's okay to feel nervous about anything new not least the diagnosis which is always a stop you in your tracks moment for most people.It might help to understand a bit more about your condition and the way bisoprolol works and why it is being prescribed. You will probably get some helpful answers here, but it feels to me as you have come away from your practitioners with the diagnosis and treatment in your head but not what this means for you. You need to be able to go back to your GP with some specifics.
Some questions might be about dose, can it be more or less, depending how well it works? How does it work and what is the purpose of controlling Afib? Are there other things I can do to help myself treat/improve my basic body health and cardiovascular system eg safe exercise program.
Afib is probably more common in the population than is detected, yours is paroxysmal, a bit random and occasional. BUT
It can be associated with increased risk of strokes for example, and for this reason the NHS is taking diagnosis and treatment of Afib as a serious harm reduction strategy for stroke prevention. You are not mentioning any prescribing of stroke medication which suggest to me that your health/age overall score suggests at this stage you don't need say an anticoagulant.
ON THE POSITIVE SIDE AND A REASON NOT TO WORRY TO MUCH, you are no longer unaware of a health risk and you are now being monitored. This is very good news because the Afib is what it is and won't go away of its own.
And my experience is stroke first, not good, paroxysmal AFib detected 15 months after the event! I'm not on bisoprolol because I have Bradycardia,low heart rate, but this is being monitored. It may change. If the cardiologist says change I trust them enough to take their advice.
thank you very much for taking the time to send a reply to me. This does help. You are correct, I am not needing to take any other medication at the moment.
Hi again.I had a mini stroke last June and was put on clopidigrel because of it. I have recently been diagnosed with AFib and the Doctor has changed me from Clopidogrel to Edoxaban which I believe is stronger - this is to help guard me against future strokes or heart attack.
I'm not a medic and I'm not going to tell you what to do. The purpose of Bisoprolol is to reduce your heart rate to avoid 'wearing your heart out'. During episodes of AF, your heart rate can go up to 160 or even higher. This is not good. The target range is 60 - 100.
Beta-blockers can make you feel low, like you are wading through treacle, and have no energy - but that isn't the case for everyone. It is the drug of first choice and most people find it entirely acceptable.
Best advice is to make friends with your cardiologist and their team - you may be seeing a lot of them!
It is a shock to the system. I felt the same when I was diagnosed the same as you. However now, I am far more relaxed. The pill in my pocket tablet didn't work so I was put on bisoprolol and now my at fib is controlled. A few wobbles but soon calms down.Cookster44 is quite correct with the information but do ask why you have not been given blood thinners or anti coagulant.
Certain foods might set you off so take note of what you eat. Red wine and cheese for me and eating very late in the evening.
Hi cookster, try not to worry too much about the meds. Iv been taking them for years and years and they do calm things down. But having said that I do still get ectopics etc but they are not as troublesome as they would be if I wasn’t taking them.!!
The downside is they can make you feel tired and lethargic to start with but things usually improve over time. I feel tired sometimes but I’d rather feel a little tired than be plagued with strong forceful palpitations and ectopics.👍
Hi.I too had palpitations attacks since my early teens, which got much worse as I got older. I'd had all the usual tests, ECGs, echos etc but showed up nothing. My GP always said nothing to worry about. However I had an aortic dissection which resulted in open heart surgery, and whilst in hospital recovering I had a palpitation attack. The Consultant put me on bisoprolol (he also said he didn't understand why my GP hadn't put me on them before for the palpitation attacks), and since taking them (touch wood) I haven't had any more attacks. That was 6 years ago now.
It's worth giving bisoprolol (or similar)a go - it definitely helped me. I was initially on 5mg morning and 5mg evening, but reduced it to 5mg morning and 2.5mg evening a while ago. I am now trying 2.5mg morning and evening with the Drs agreement and see how that goes.
you might find some useful information or similar experiences on the Arrhythmia Alliance forum on this site ; apologies if this has already been suggested.
You need to try it to see if it improves the AF symptoms. Good ideas to have a blood pressure monitor at home so you can check your bp and pulse at different times of the day. Good luck 😊
Hi, I cannot offer advice about Afib but I can tell you of my experience and my treatment.
It’s natural to feel nervous or anxious, a diagnosis like this can be daunting. It took me a while to get my head around it and work out what my life would or could be in the future.
I had a heart attack (NSTEMI type II) - 4.5 years and that was my introduction to Afib (paroxysmal); the eventual conclusion was the untreated and undiagnosed arrhythmia caused a small transient clot that entered my heart. Came off relatively ok but I did have slight left ventricle dysfunction. Prior to this, I was totally oblivious to the arrhythmia.
My initial PAF treatment (Jun 19) was daily Flecainide 50mg (am) and 100 mg (pm) along with 2.5mg Bisoprolol and a Edoxaban/Clopidogrel dual therapy (anti coagulation).
The Flecainide has been fantastic for me, no side effects. I had one AF episode (Jul 20), which spontaneously synced to NSR. Since then I am 3+ years ‘Afib free’.
The daily Bisoprolol has been discontinued. I am pretty fit and have a low resting heart rate; it just dropped off an edge with the beta blocker; tiredness and lethargy.
The Edoxaban was also dropped too (Sept 22). My Afib is stable, it was prescribed initially as a precaution (Afib and stroke risk) but primarily because I am under the threshold for anticoagulants, it was removed. Must start it again, if I have Afib episodes though.
I do have an ‘emergency PiP’ option too. Should I have an episode, I can try an extra 100 mg of Flecainide and 2.5 mg of Bisoprolol. My Afib is usually with RVR, so the beta blocker is there to protect my ventricles. The idea is this PiP will help ‘knock’ my heart back into NSR before I have to present at A&E. I am pleased to say, so far, I have never had to try it. In previous episodes too I always returned to NSR spontaneously in a few hours anyway.
For me, my treatment plan has been good. I have had no ill effects that I’m aware of and have been very stable. Despite what has happened to me, I don’t feel I have any limitations; well, bar the ageing process in general 😀 I run, climb, cycle and travel. On an Echo last year, my heart was fine and there was no sign of the ventricle dysfunction.
Being concerned about your position is understandable. As you can see from this forum, ( and others) everyone’s experience of Afib is different and one approach/solution doesn’t fit everyone. I would just say, work with your doctor or cardiologist to find the right one for you and discuss your worries and concerns.
first of all, I have to say that what I am taking at the moment works. Also, I feel absolutely fine with it. However, when I first started taking it to regulate and control my heartbeat, I struggled with it,feeling lots of side-effects. They played around with different pills which didn’t suit me ,and then came back to Bisoprolol, which I still had a problem with – felt half alive, most of the time and dizzy regularly. We then agreed I would take half the dose I was on, which was much better and after a few weeks I felt like normal and they were very happy so I’m now on it permanently.
i’ve heard from a number of people that you have to persevere for a few weeks to see if you get used to it.
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