I am on a very low dose 1.25mg of Bisoprolol to help me cope with PVCs, I have a sinus arrythmia, junctional rhythm, PVC's and suffer from bigeminy - I'm very aware of every skipped beat I have and the anxiety of it all was really taking it's toll hence the medication.
I am 2 weeks in now and the initial side effects seem to have subsided - however, I am experiencing what I feel is very laboured breathing, each breath feels like an effort and sometimes there is a heaviness that makes me feel as though I cant take a full breath at all. I'm also getting a very new type of pain in my chest that is only fleeting lasts a couple of second at a time but feels almost like a 'dunk' sensation.
I'm still in early days with this medication so I don't want to quit at the first hurdle but wanted to see if anyone else had persevered through such side effects.
In my head I'm thinking if the cardiologists are right and this is all very benign and normal am I doing myself more harm than good on these tablet? My biggest concern is that I am still feeling every single PVC as a 'skipped heartbeat' so really what I am on my medication for doesn't seem to be being resolved. I have been told it can take 2-6 weeks for it all to work so do I just hold out the full 6 weeks?
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Kellylou1712
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I've been on 2.5 Bisoprolol for 18months and get breathless and have the angina type pain, i don't think it's related to side effects because I didn't always have it and it comes and goes. I'm seeing my Cardio on Monday so hope he has answers.
Hello Bantam12. I feel your pain. I am on 0.5mg once a day of bisoprolol, managing the side effects quit well. I still feel the PVC's PAC's once in a while, some weeks better then others. Just this morning I had a bout of a 15 second sequence of PAC's or PVC's scary as all hell and it feels like your just going to pass out. do you ever have a long bout of the extra beats in a row? if so how does it feel? just trying to gage if I should go back to the doctor and try to get some more answers.
Hello and thank you for sharing your post with all the Members, I am sure they will all offer you support and advice based on their own experiences. If you would like some information regarding the beta blocker 'Bisoprolol' please visit our online patient resources heartrhythmalliance.org/aa/... treatment for heart rhythm disorders (arrhythmias)' booklet will be helpful to you? You are also invited to join our Patients Day 2021 too !
Hi Kellylou1712,Maybe the first thing to know about Bisoprolol is that it isn't an arrhythmia cure. It just slows your heart rate and prevents it from beating as forcefully as it normally would.
Then, as you've pointed out, 1.25mg is a small dose and maybe it isn't enough to help you. Many people take as much as 5-10mg (5mg in my own case). It might be silly in your case to increase your dose if you aren't tolerating 1.25mg well at the moment. But it is true that the longer you take it, the less sluggish you may feel.
5mg doesn't prevent my having episodes of Afib. It just lessens them, and like many people on this medication, I too find it slows me down, and it takes me a long time to get going every day. At my age (72), that's not too much of an issue as I don't need to dash to many things nowadays.
I think one contributors to your own discomfort might partly be your anxiety, and I'd advise learning as much as you can about the cause and effects are for the sort of arrhythmia you have. Often mere mention the word 'fibrillation' panics many people and they have visions of emergency situations involving defibrillating machines and sudden death. The most common arrhythmias actually occur in the atria (top two chambers of the heart) and aren't, in the main, life threatening at all. So the more you learn and understand, the less anxiety leading to less arrhythmia in some cases.
And then, plan to discuss your dosage of Bisoprolol with your healthcare provider when you can, but it's not an emergency situation. You will be OK and I hope you can find your way forward on a dose which will give you the maximum amount of relief.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. It was really such a thoughtful and caring response and I will certainly try my best to follow your recommendations and advice.
Hopefully your side effects will subside in time. I started Bisiprolol at 5 mg and had all the symptoms you describe and more. I felt as though I would have an MI, stroke, or heart failure since I was feeling every heart beat, sometime pounding and like the drug was fighting my pacemaker which is set at 70 beats per minute.
I also felt extremely lethargic and could not go without long afternoon naps. Then, my cardiologist put me on 7. 5 mg and things got much worse so I simply rebelled and cut back to 5 mg, splitting the dose to 2.5 morning and night and then skipping doses if I felt PVCs, even taking 2.5 sometimes as needed.
Somewhere along the line, I began changing my supplements regimen to one that I used when I had severe Pneumonia from forest fire smoke consisting of NAC+C Glutathione and also resumed aged garlic tabs, and increased magnesium glycinate. I also upped my Boswellia and Quercetin with Bromelain as all these things support lung function.
Finally, I cut back on Allegra for Allergies to the 60mg tablet since it’s main function kills adrenaline as does Bisiprolol to the point that I was bordering on adrenal insufficiency!
Luckily, my cardiologist accepted my regimen changes and it has now been over a year since my defibrillator has even thought about administering a V-Fib shock. Also, my pounding heart has all but stopped and V-Tach episodes very rare.
Best wishes for finding a solution to your side effects. It took a lot of experimenting for me and an understanding Cardiologist to get ne back to feeling somewhat normal since starting Beta Blockers.
Thank you. If you take antihistamines, beware the higher dose 24 hour ones. When antihistamines became available OTC, common dosages for the big 3 (Claritin, Allegra, and Zyrtec) climbed over the years to what I believe are unsafe due to gross suppression of Adrenaline when combined with beta blockers. I now take 12 hour or even children’s dose which control my allergies quite well most of the time. 🍀
hi kellylou i have had rapid heartbeats for about 40 years now been through most medications for this at present i;m on 15mg of bisoprolol with other tablets i know how you feel with your breathlessness i could run marathons at one time but now with what i take shortage of breath holds me back i went fishing the other day went down a bank in no time but took me an hour to get back up it having to rest every 20 steps or so the medication will knock you back i take 5 other tablets digoxin-rivaroxaban-furosemide-lercanidipine-ramipril-don;t feel the heartbeat so much now blood pressure spot on was always high but this new tablet lercanidipine controls the BP you need to say to yourself when the breathlessness comes on to calm yourself and breath normaly i just relax and your breathing will come normaly keep taking deep breaths but don;t panic you control your breathing hope this helps stan
A great response thank you so much for taking the time to write it! It’s reassuring to know that others have been feeling breathless on these tablets too without it being something very extreme! I must learn my body has new limits now.
Hi Kellylou, I had a pacemaker fitted last October as I have tachy brady, and now with bigeminy and ectopic beats. I have recently (this June) had my Bisoprolol increased from 2.5mg which I was on for 10 years to 5mg in the morning and 1.25 in the evening. I have found it took a long time for the changes to actually work but now I do feel so much better in the mornings although I am still flagging quite a bit later in the day. I make sure I take the morning pill a while before I get up and it kicks in better. I really notice if I haven't taken that extra top up by 6.30pm. I can then cook supper OK.I have always been sensitive to the Bisoprolol with the cold hands and feet and I do get very tired now, which I was before it was increased anyway. Now it seems to have settled down much better and although I'm still getting the thumping in the chest and quite a lot of the extra beats I seem to be coping with it all better than I was.
It might take a while for yours to settle down but 1 -2 weeks isn't long so I would stick with it and see how it goes. 1.25mg is a very low dose. Good luck!
Thank you so much for your response and for taking the time to write to me. I seem to have had a good day today but then I have a bad day and so on and so forth so I think as you said I need to give it a little time and trust that my body is adjusting and there will be weird and wonderful things happening along the way!
Hi Kellylou As others have said 1.25 is a low starting dose. My GP described it as a “sprinkling”. He also said it’s a very safe drug and very unlikely at low doses to be harmful. My dose was increased to 5mg but unfortunately my BP and pulse dropped too low so I’m trialling taking a low dose of Verapamil . The beta blockers did dampen the sensation of the PVCs although like you I find bigeminy disturbing. Good days and bad days for no apparent reason! So far Verapamil has done nothing to help.Think I’m heading for an ablation but lots of people are happy on betablockers so hope you will be one of those given a bit more time. All the very best to you😊
Oh thank you so much for such a kind and reassuring response! I completely understand your good days and bad days comment, and I find if it’s a bad day and I dwell on it or worry that it means a few more bad days! I will preserve and see how I go, best of luck to you in return!
Yes sleep definitely plays an important role to me! My family/friends think I’m a Madonna if I suggest there is a link between sleep and my heart but I know this to be true!
Hello kellylou1712. I feel your pain. I am on 0.5mg once a day of bisoprolol, managing the side effects quit well. I still feel the PVC's PAC's once in a while, some weeks better then others. Just this morning I had a bout of a 15 second sequence of PAC's or PVC's scary as all hell and it feels like your just going to pass out. do you ever have a long bout of the extra beats in a row? if so how does it feel? just trying to gage if I should go back to the doctor and try to get some more answers
Hello Bayern2, thanks for commenting! I don’t necessarily pvc’s in a row but I do get bigeminy which is a ‘skipped beat, normal beat, skipped beat, normal beat’ and this can last for about 20 seconds at times before it goes back to ‘normal’ it’s the worst feeling ever!! I don’t feel dizzy or like I’m going to pass out but I do get this sudden rush of adrenaline and if I’m sitting or sleeping feel like I need to just leap up and move or take a really forced cough!
Thanks for the response. I do get those as well, there is no rhyme or reason to them either, and no matter how many episodes you experience, every time it is very scary. Do you take any meds? and is it all helping? I am on 0.5mg bisoprolol daily. It helps with the pounding heart feeling and or accelerated heart beat, however, like I said, I still get the extra beats. The beats that happen in a row for a few seconds freak me right out, though. Its really debilitating and stressful.
Hello Bayern2, I have just been started on 1.25mg bisoprolol and I'm the same as you, my heart rate seems regular, I don't feel a pounding heart and I now have very little awareness of my heartbeat which is great but these extra beats still come through, sometimes they can be a little less pronounced but the bigeminy is one I can't escape from. It's really horrible isn't it, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
Hi Kelly,I'm on 10mg per day, it gets me down mentally having to take it and I've asked the doctors if I can come off it many times but unfortunately it's my insurance backer. I have been on it since my cardioversion in 2019. My heart rate is nice and steady but I've definitely slowed down and have frequent naps when I'm not a work! I've never suffered from a shortness of breath. Best of luck.
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