Lightheadedness

Is it possible that having a pacemaker along with taking Lopressor, digoxin, and Lisinopril could keep my heartrate from rising appropriately to correspond with increased activity, thus causing lightheadedness?

5 Comments

Lightheadedness

by SMITTY - 2009-07-23 02:07:20

Hello CMoore,

It is not likely that the pacemaker is keeping your heart rate from rising. Its job is to keep your heart rate from going below a certian point, but not to keep it from increasing. Lopressor is a beta blocker and the Lisinoprill is an ACE inhibitor both of which will decrease the heart rate, if the dosage is high enough.

I take it you have an irregular heart beat. I do and I have been given all three medicatins you are taking at one time or the other. In my case the beta blocker and the ACE inhibitor were to slow my heart rate to a point the arrhythmia woud not occur, and in case it did the Digoxin was to help stop any irregular heart beat during the low HR.

My pacemaker is supposed to keep my heart rate from going below its low set point of 70. If you have seen some of my other comments you may have seen me grumble about my PM not holding my HR at its low setting of 70 most of the time, but that is another story and should not apply to your situation. My PM did its job when I was taking the meds you are taking, but I have side effects from them that prevents me from taking them now.

I can think of two things you might consider talking to your doctor about. If you are having lightheadedness problems, you could see if the doctor can consider increasing the low setting for your PM. Or if you have a PM with a rate response feature, you might ask if this is activated on your PM. The rate response should increase your heart rate when you start physical activity and give you a faster heart rate.

Good luck

Smitty

Lightheadedness

by cmoore - 2009-07-23 02:07:36

I guess my thinking was that since I am taking all three meds maybe they are what is preventing my HR to rise as it should. My HR is never more than in the 70's no matter what I am doing, and my cardiologist just blew me off.

Lightheadedness

by cmoore - 2009-07-23 03:07:13

Mine is set at 60 so maybe that could be a problem. Even though he blew me off, I think I may have to talk to him again about this--I am not exactly what you would call dizzy--just "spacey" at times especially if I am bending over, but sometimes if I am just walking. Extreme heat seems to be a problem with me also.

I think it is the meds

by johnb10000 - 2009-07-23 03:07:45

Digoxin interacts with about everything and can cause dizziness and problems with standing and walking. My pharmacist often warns me about the drug interactions and I have trouble standing and walking far.

My low heart rate is currently set to 70. It was originally set to 60 but they increased it to 70 see if it could help with the dizziness and walking.

Has anybody replaced Digoxin with some other beta blocker?

.

by johnb10000 - 2009-07-23 05:07:41

When the low pulse was changed from 60 to 70 it didn't make any difference for me.

At one time I stopped Digoxin for a few weeks and felt better but I had to go back on it because of my heart problems.

When walking along I can suddenly feel like I am floating and at other times feel like I stepped into a hole. When this happens I will slow down my walking or stop for a few seconds. I also feel spacey at times.

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