well, I guess I don't get to ask for that climbing wall after all
:awe:
heart issues - any idea if it's due to diet and eating red meats often?
Vices should be minimized, or eliminated from your life
There are beta blockers that cause your heart to contract more forcefully and regulate your heart rate. Those are pretty benign for most people although some do get muscle aches from them. Atenelol and Sotalol I think are 2 that work that way.UPDATE 20171108: I saw the cardiologist yesterday & the news is pretty good. First, my primary physician slightly misdiagnosed me... instead of a PVC, I have a PAC which is the same condition but in a different section of the heart. This is good news; a PVC can indicate that something worse may be going on, but a PAC is almost completely benign. The cardiologist is going to ultrasound my heart in a couple of weeks just to be sure nothing else is going on. He isn't going to put me on any medicines. He said the available medicines would make me feel worse than the PAC is making me feel, and I mostly feel pretty good now that I've cut out all food & drink that contain caffeine.
That is a blessing for sure.Trust me - it could have been a whole lot worse. Through experimentation I've found that most alcohols are OK, with the exception of red wine, which is still a bummer. So if I have to drink decaf coffee the rest of my life, I can live with that. If I had to go the rest of my life without an occasional shot of something... I would be, I think the word is *upset*
occasional shot of something... I would be, I think the word is *upset*
There are beta blockers that cause your heart to contract more forcefully and regulate your heart rate. Those are pretty benign for most people although some do get muscle aches from them. Atenelol and Sotalol I think are 2 that work that way.
Beta blockers actually make your heart contract less forcefully (and rapidly). They're also really not that benign and have a fairly significant side effect profile. Muscle aches generally come from cholesterol pills, the statins. Atenolol and Sotalol are certainly beta blockers (although Sotalol actually has class III arrhythmic properties unlike the other beta blockers which are class IIs which makes it a whole different animal) but neither is used much without fairly specific indications. Just as a PSA, if you're on atenolol for high blood pressure or coronary artery disease (and if you are, you probably have been for years), please talk to your doctor about changing drugs.
Glad to hear all is well with NN!
If I may be so bold, what are you taking it for? Plain old high blood pressure? Feel free to take it to PMs, or ignore me entirely, if you want, but it's just a drug without a whole lot of efficacy (and some evidence of increased mortality in the case of atenolol, actually) and it isn't used much outside certain circumstances.. Unfortunately, due to medical inertia, many people remain on it despite it being obsolete in the treatment of high blood pressure.I've been on atenolol for over 10 years. I just saw my doc on Monday...he said to keep taking them...the only thing he said was that there's apparently a nationwide shortage...which would explain why the prescription price nearly tripled over the past year.
If I may be so bold, what are you taking it for? Plain old high blood pressure? Feel free to take it to PMs, or ignore me entirely, if you want, but it's just a drug without a whole lot of efficacy (and some evidence of increased mortality in the case of atenolol, actually) and it isn't used much outside certain circumstances.. Unfortunately, due to medical inertia, many people remain on it despite it being obsolete in the treatment of high blood pressure.
If that's the case, absent contraindications, you'd be better served on something like an ACE inhibitor or thiazide diuretic. Obviously I don't know you're regimen and you may already been on these classes.Yeah, just plain old hypertension...and without insurance that would cover prescriptions, whatever I take has to be low cost. Until recently, atenolol was running me less than $7.00 for 90 days. The refill last week was $20.
If that's the case, absent contraindications, you'd be better served on something like an ACE inhibitor or thiazide diuretic. Obviously I don't know you're regimen and you may already been on these classes.
My concern with atenolol is that it doesn't seem to offer the stroke reduction benefit that the other classes have (this is true of all beta blockers) and there is some evidence that atenolol specifically actually increases risk of death after the age of 60.
Off the top of my head, lisinopril is on the Walmart 4 dollar list so that's 10 bucks for three months. Most people, statistically, will require more than one class of drug to control blood pressure, and ACE plus thiazide combo is quite common. Walmart actually has a combo version (admittedly the lower dose version) for 10 bucks per 90 days.
If cost of medications is an issue, I also find a lot of value in GoodRx.com to look around for local, cash (or with coupon), drug prices.
Personally I think it's adorable!I was on zestril at first...but I ended up with the zestril cough. (didn't even know that was a thing)...doc switched me to atenolol. Some of the meds he had me try at first had...side effects, like my hands swelling up like Mickey Mouse's...apparently that's bad.
I take an amphetamine and use atenelol to reduce the increased heart rate the drugs cause. But I'd be interested in any sources you have regarding the increased risk of death and some of the other statements you've made. Not trying to be a dick or anything, I'd just like more information.If I may be so bold, what are you taking it for? Plain old high blood pressure? Feel free to take it to PMs, or ignore me entirely, if you want, but it's just a drug without a whole lot of efficacy (and some evidence of increased mortality in the case of atenolol, actually) and it isn't used much outside certain circumstances.. Unfortunately, due to medical inertia, many people remain on it despite it being obsolete in the treatment of high blood pressure.
I take an amphetamine and use atenelol to reduce the increased heart rate the drugs cause. But I'd be interested in any sources you have regarding the increased risk of death and some of the other statements you've made. Not trying to be a dick or anything, I'd just like more information.
Thanks for that. But getting back to the original question of managing an irregular heart beat, what drugs are generally recommended for that type of situation since that relates more to the OP.