My GP has prescribed me 10mg propanolol "when I need it" so mostly I take one in the morning and it is a relief not to feel my heart pounding away – till it wears off at lunchtime. I am always anxious so there's hardly a day when I don't feel I need it.
My question is: I do love walking holidays and I'm about to go up to the Yorkshire moors – what will happen when I exert myself ie climbing steep gradients? My heart rate would normally increase hugely, obviously – what happens on a beta blocker, can your slowed-down heart cope with extra exertion?
Of course it can. All a beta blocker does is makes you heart beat stronger and maintains your heart rate so whatever you are doing whether it be walking or exercising your beta blocker will control your heart rate depending on the activity you are doing. If you get worried about this ask a pharmacist they will be knowledgable on this matter but i am positive that your slowed down heart will be able to cope. It doesn't slow it down to a dangerous level it just controls and makes it become slower so you don't get that racing heart feeling. If your heart is healthy the beta blocker reducing your heart rate will not effect your hearts ability to cope even if your cardiac output is decreased as i exercise every day at a high intensity.
That's good to hear, Olivia, most reassuring, thank you.
Hi
My blood pressure has been over 200/100 not pleasant. I have been taken off propanolol I was on 5 mg, now on a water tablet great.
Stress anxiety etc we ALL get it at some times I am surprises that you GP has let you decide when you take the tablet , you said ( when you need it ).
I have had chronic generalised anxiety for about 15 years – counselling has helped a great deal but I still get stressed most days, and this can cause palpitations and missed heart beats which winds me up further as I am terrified of ending up in A&E with SVT (which happened last time). So... my GP quite clearly said I could take propanolol when I felt I needed it, which is most mornings. It is bliss not to be able to feel my heart beat. For example, we are going away on holiday tomorrow and already I am anxious and my heart going like crazy, which frightens me, so I took one 10 mg pill and fantastic, a couple of hours later my heart is behaving itself. What a relief, and how comforting to know I have these little pills which really help when I need them.