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Metoprolol and Slow Heart Rate

I am a 31 year old male, 6'4, 195lbs.  I visited a cardiologist in April 2010 because of palpitations during exercise.  I had an echo done: trace mitral and tricuspid inefficiency, EF 53%, borderline global hypokinesis (my left ventricular motion is borderline reduced, but structurally normal).  Overall, the doctor said I was fine but hypertensive, so he put me on 10mg of Ramipril for my BP.  Recently, I've had continued issues with anxiety during exercise and palpitations.  So I was told to come in for another stress test.  I took it and they saw ST depressions.  The doctor (not my regular cardiologist) stopped the treadmill, but after he looked through my file, we resumed.  Overall, I was fine and he suspected a false positive, but I still had to go in for a nuclear stress test.  Pretty much the same thing happened with my heart rate, though I do not know if there were more ST depressions, I'll find out Monday. Both cardiologists suspect it is my anxiety. I recently had an "angioscreen," and everything came back normal.   Also, my cholesterol is 137.  I was taken off of the ramipril and put on 12.5mg of metoprolol twice a day.  I started Monday and my heart rate hardly ever goes above 60 bpm; even standing and when I walk at a normal pace it stays in the 70's. I can't go for long walks without being exhausted, though today I was happy that I managed to get my heart rate up to 102 (at that pace it normally would have been at 118-124).  I'm feeling tired often.  Are these side effects temporary?  I'm starting to wonder if my cardiologist will take me off of the beta-blockers.  It kind of *****, because it has helped with the anxiety aspect of my health, but I can't deal with feeling run down all of the time.  
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Avatar universal
Beta blockers do typically take people a while to get used to, although part of the idea of them is to get your resting heart rate to come down. An unfortunate side effect for some people is that they are limited in the exercise they can do. I would say give it at least another week and see if you feel any less tired- it does take your body a while to adjust. If you're still not feeling any better by that time, then I'd say that might be a good time to talk to your Dr. about it.

Good luck!

Jill
Pharmacy student
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Avatar universal
Sorry about the double post, I can't figure out how to delete one.  
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