Switching from bea blocker to ccb

[CFS56]

Wednesday I was admitted to the hospital in a fib. I was discharged on cardizem and told to discontinue my beta blocker, which I have been taking for 7 years. I asked about tapering the beta blocker and the doctor said it wasnt necessary. I got home yesterday and my hr went up to 115. Went to er got ekg and was just sinus tachycardia. So maybe anxiety? Went down to 80s and today has been in the 70s and 80s. Blood pressure was high last night but on the low side today. My concern is just stopping beta blockers and going to the cardizem, a ccb. Has anyone else done this. Any problems.

[tacolino]

Hi there. A rebound Tachycardia is common on withdrawl of BB. But it usually settles with time. Generally there is a weening off process. I have been taking Labetholol for 2 years and every time its withdrawn, the rebound starts. My doc has had to re start me on a low dose of it . At one stage i was taking 12 tabs a day x 200mg, = 2400 mg - the max dose. it was hell and didnt even work. at that level my BP was190/95 and that was with doxasosin, verapramil too.! Hope it settles for you

[Eliza12345]

Have you had ablations done?

[Eliza12345]

Dear anxious forever......my anxiety and fear about the future living with afib has taken over.......although I had the ablation recently I just see my future as filled with afib reality and terror.  Now I'm even thinking pacemaker defibrillator in my future.........omg!!!!!!! Now I get why one EP told me that the only way to get my afib fixed would be to get the hybrid technique done.......double surgery and double the risks

[Eliza12345]

Hi jerry.......why after all the work that has been done on you including mini maze procedure you still haven't to take so much medication? I just had my first ablation and cannot continue to take the CCB and flecinide since they have destroyed my stomach. How do you cope? The medications don't make you sick?

[CFS56]

For the most part, the beta blockers have worked.  For the last year or so I have had short episodes of tachycardia of some sort..not sure if it was afib or not because I didn't go to a doctor and I also have episodes of SVT.  Lately, I have had tons of PVCs and then the afib.  So..guess they aren't working anymore.

[CFS56]

Yesterday my hr popped up to around 110 again for no apparent reason, called my cardiologists answering service and one of the doctors, who I have never seen, called me back and told me to take half of my beta blocker dosage as well as the ccb.  That seemed to work, have not had any more problems..not yet anyway.  It would make sense to me that after the years and years I have taken beta blockers and  the adrenaline receptors in my heart have been blocked that if I stopped all of a sudden, there would be some rebound tachycardia.  As I understand it calcium channel blockers, like Jerry said, work a different way and block different receptors.  I asked if that could happen (rebound tachycardia) before I was discharged and never really got a good answer.  Maybe I am totally off base here with my ideas?

[Anxious4ever]

I would call a pharmacy and see what they recommend then ask you Dr.

Did the BB work for you for your afib for that long?

[Jerry_NJ]

Not exactly the same but I do take BB and CCB, both to lower HR from AFib. They operate in different ways but I think the BB is a better HR lowering drug.  I take both because the high dose of BB it took to get my HR down was too high, had side effects. During the experimentation my doctor had me dramatically change BB dose level, from 200 mg to 100 and down to 50. The changes were step not tappered.  

Don't know this proves anything beyond I didn't have any direct problems that I am aware of.  My HR is now well controlled with 50 mg BB and 240 mg CCB.

I know my blood pressure was too low at high BB, key reason to lower it and it seems to me over time my BP tends to normalize - a good low normal.