Toprol question

[amyshields]

Hey everyone! I am currently taking 50mg. daily and experiencing A LOT of fatigue! Can this be related to the meds? I am scheduled to see my cardio early next month and would like to keep it that way (I have a lapse in my insurance right now). This fatigue is really anoying ... can anyone offer advice?

Thanks!

[Joyful]

Yes! I currently take 300 mg of Toprol XL (150 am/150 pm). It will make you tired, but your body will finally get acclimated to it. I would go home after work and take a nap. The biggest thing is to allow yourself to nap and not feel bad about it. Listen to your body and go with the flow - and just remind yourself that it will get better - I promise!!

[Sarah]

Try taking your dose before bed to see if that helps. You can talk to your doctor about changing to a different betablocker.

Whatever you do, don't stop taking it cold turkey as that can make you worse.

good luck,

S

[adpsmp]

Greetings - Toprol also knocked me down. Doc switched me to Atenolol and it has been better. Maybe you just need a different med. Good luck!

Andy P

[amyshields]

Thank you for your responses. I have taken diltiazem (sp?) and atenolol prior to this. I recently switched to taking it in the evening so hopefully after a week or two of that, I will be right on track ;)

Anyone else have thoughts? Don't end the discussion on my account - HA!

[Curt]

when I first went on metoprolol I was soooo tired. We cut it from 100mg twice daily to 50mg. Too many symtoms, so back up. After about a couple months got used to it. After a couple years couldn't even tell, no fatigue issue. Went to the ER last week and we upped to 150mg twice daily. It's been a week on the new dose and right now I'm about to fall asleep in my cubicle. I'm sure I'll get used to it. I used to look at the meds as my enemy: made me tired, hated the fact I was on meds for life at 39. Now I see my meds as my life saver. IMO a few weeks/months of fatigue are worth it if it is doing it's job.

[jkalpin]

I am also on 50mg a day and think I am a bit more tired. (Right now I could fall asleep at work). But the issue I am wondering about is if anyone else has experienced nightmares. I am not sure if the tiredness is coming as a direct side effect of the med or from the horrible sleep I am getting. I wake up often in the middle of the night, which I never did before. I also have really disturbing dreams. Has anyone else experienced this?

[BlueDevil]

I also have really disturbing dreams. Has anyone else experienced this?

I've been experiencing a dramatic difference in my dreaming patterns since I've been on Toprol.

Up until now, it was the norm to have mostly "dreamless" sleep; we always dream, but we don't always remember it. Since I've been on this medication, it's gone completely opposite: it's rare that I have a night where I don't dream something so vivid that I remember it. They're sometimes disturbing, but at the very least they're odd and weird.

It's not the content of my dreams that bothers me so much as the intensity. I've been experiencing physical "sensation" in my dreams, and I even relived an emotionally painful experience from years past. It was so odd: it was like I had been transported to that exact moment in time and felt the very same way I felt in reality. It was unnerving, and I was "off" for the entire day.

I don't know what help this will be to you, but yes, it seems the medication is the culprit. Others around here have expressed similar problems as yours.

[amyshields]

Sometimes I have bad dreams but not so often that I thought it could be a side effect of Toprol. Sorry I can't help you more there.

I have become a lot more symptomatic over the last month regardless of the meds. I see my cardiologist tomorrow so we will be having a talk about this ;) My trend seems to be that after a myectomy or new medication, I do fine for about 4-6 weeks and then the sob, chest pain, numbness/pain in left arm, fatigue, etc. start to creep back into my life. Gotta figure this one out ...

[jkalpin]

In response to Blue Devil's comments:
I find that very interesting. I am experiencing very similar things. I also used to never remember any of my dreams. Your comments help confirm what I suspected (that it may be the med). I may talk to my Dr. about it. I don't know if it is a good enough reason to change meds, but I miss having the good nights sleeps I used to always have. I'll see what he says.
Thanks for your comments. By the way, I live in Mpls and work in St. Paul.
Jennie

[BlueDevil]

In response to Blue Devil's comments:
I find that very interesting. I am experiencing very similar things. I also used to never remember any of my dreams. Your comments help confirm what I suspected (that it may be the med). I may talk to my Dr. about it. I don't know if it is a good enough reason to change meds, but I miss having the good nights sleeps I used to always have. I'll see what he says.
Thanks for your comments. By the way, I live in Mpls and work in St. Paul.
Jennie
I live in Saint Paul and work in Eagan. Moved here from San Francisco almost two years ago. :)

Definitely bring it up to your doctor because you might be able to take something different, but if you can't you are going to need to figure out how to manage the issue.

Others will disagree, but I don't put much stock in dreams in the sense that they tell us anything meaningful about our lives. My attitude has probably helped me deal with the intense dreaming patterns I have.

I am really only thinking out loud here, and I can't say for sure whether this is possible or feasible, but I wonder if we can influence the subconscious to take away some of the power dreams have over us. If you can tell yourself and come to believe that your dreams simply are that -- just dreams -- over time they may become less disturbing to you. Does that make sense?

[jkalpin]

Thanks for the thoughts. I see what you're saying. I am don't feel like the dreams mean anything. It is just disturbing and I worry I don't get good rest at night, which I feel is important with HCM.
Jennie

[RPMelia]

I'm on 100 mgs of Toprol XL and I have vivid dreams every night. On the advice of my cardiologist, I switched from taking Toprol in the morning to taking it about 9:00 p.m. This has reduced sleepiness in the afternoon, but has increased the intenisty and frequency of dreams.

I wonder about the role Toprol plays in blood flow (see NIH report below). There are lots of studies that relate sleep, REM, blood flow and dreams. I've read that recalling one's dreams is a good sign as people with dementia usually do not recall dreams.

In any case, I'm very pleased that Toprol controls my heart rate making it possible for me to be pretty active in exercise and gardening, for example. The vivid dreams are not a big problem for me.

Dick Melia
__________________________________________________ ______________
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February, 1998
Contact: Jo Bagley
(301) 496-7243
(301) 402-0252 (TTY)
bagleyj@ms.nidcd.nih.gov


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Inner Workings of Dreams Revealed

The brain operates in a unique way to create our highly visual, often bizarre dreams according to a new study, reported in the January 2, 1998, issue of Science. Using neuroimaging techniques, the report reveals that visual association areas and limbic regions of the brain isolate themselves from the primary visual cortex as well as the higher, more analytical areas of the brain during dreaming. This may explain why dreams are often highly visual, emotional and illogical.

"Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a period of intense visual dreaming, lends itself perfectly to study of how the brain creates visual images," said lead investigator Allen Braun, M.D., of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institutes of Health (NIH). He added that, "One pervading theory has that the entire visual brain is involved, to some extent, in visual imagination. Our results suggest that this may be true only during the conscious, waking state."

Dr. Braun's team, which included scientists from the NIH and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC, used positron emission tomography (PET) to detect areas of the visual brain that were active during REM sleep in ten healthy young men. These areas were contrasted with wakefulness and slow wave sleep (SWS), a period of limited visual imagry, in the same ten men.

What the team found was increased blood flow, an indication of heightened brain activity, to the visual association areas of the brain during REM sleep. At the same time, decreased blood flow was observed to the brain's primary visual area, an area that receives visual images from the outside world. In addition, activity of the limbic system, the primitive, older, more emotional part of the brain was also heightened. This increased brain activity contrasted with decreased activity in the frontal cortex, that part of the brain that interprets and integrates information received from the visual and limbic systems, based on higher level processes such as memory, logic, and thought. "Lack of this higher level self-monitoring could explain why dreams can be so absurd," commented Dr. Braun.

"This study shows how imaging technology can reveal complex inner workings of the human brain to explain some of life's most vivid experiences," commented James F. Battey, M.D., Ph.D., Acting Director of the NIDCD.

As the nation's focal point for research in human communication, the NIDCD conducts and supports biomedical and behavioral research and research training on normal mechanisms as well as diseases and disorders of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and language that affects 46 million Americans.