Beta Blockers - Bisoprolol

Another question PM friends. I'm now 10 days post implant following a 2nd degree IRBB heart block. Pre-implant r.esting HR 37 - sleeping HR 29. Over the past 2-3 years during exercise / training I've noticed difficulty in reaching any target training heart rates (80%) in spite of increased effort. Sooooo,,,, PM implant to elevate HR but why would I also be prescribed a beta-blocker to lower HR? Yes,,, I have asked the Dr but has anyone else experienced this and would you know why?

2 Comments

Seems counter intuitive, I know

by Gemita - 2024-11-06 03:05:00

Gone Surfing,

Yes it seems odd that we get a pacemaker to keep the heart rate up and then receive a beta blocker to keep the heart rate down, but this is exactly why some of us get pacemakers, especially if we have a tachy arrhythmia that needs to be firmly controlled.  By having a pacemaker, our doctors can safely prescribe a rate control medication like a beta blocker, without fear of reducing our heart rate to dangerously low levels.  This is one of the reasons why I have a pacemaker.  My pacemaker is set at a steady higher heart rate and this is effectively maintained even though I take rate lowering meds.

Of course some of us receive a beta blocker for other conditions too, like heart failure, angina, high blood pressure.

As a rate control medication patient, (I was on Bisoprolol for several years), I am well aware of the difficulties we have in maintaining a level of fitness that we would like to enjoy while taking a rate lowering medication like a beta blocker that slows us right down.  Unfortunately those of us who are arrhythmia sufferers have a difficult time balancing our medication and pacemaker settings to suit our lifestyle, but it can still be done with patience and determination and I hope you won’t be giving up easily.  We need to keep challenging our doctors for answers and better treatments so that we can all enjoy a quality of life and achieve our fitness goals.

Beta blockers

by piglet22 - 2024-11-06 04:35:30

Gemita has explained it nicely.

A pacemaker takes you closer to a more normal life and that can mean being able to tolerate medication designed to help with hypertension for example.

Bisoprolol is popular with prescribers once in the pacemaker system and my Atenolol was changed to Bisoprolol recently.

It takes a bit of juggling to get the dose right and I was taken all the way from 2.5-mg daily to 10-mg daily and now I have taken it gradually down to about 5-mg.

I split this into a low evening dose of about 1.7-mg and a morning dose of 3.75-mg. Yes, not exactly the 5-mg but good enough. Fiddly but worth getting right.

It's important to take the medication on time as I often find out when I forget to take it 

 My BP soon shoots up to unacceptable levels Managing medication gets quite tricky.

You know you're wired when...

You can hear your heartbeat in your cell phone.

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