Anyone have issues with beta blockers making MC worse

[DebE13]

I haven't posted in a long while since I've been in the same pattern for more years than I can count. I've reached the bottom of the list of meds that will help manage my MC and have settled with one Entocort each day to manage night issues. To make a very long story shorter, I take Armor thyroid meds because I had a total thyroidectomy in 2013 and now for whatever reason, my numbers went sky high in July. Had my dose cut and retested today and they're still high. In the meantime, I developed ectopic heartbeats and even more bothersome, pulsative tinnitus. My diastolic bp is high and I'm now taking metoprolol tartrate (25mg daily) to address adrenaline dysautonomia and it is causing a rumbly tummy and D that is different than my norm.

Any suggestions as to how to get that part under control?

Never had any heart/neuro issues ever. The biggest change I can figure is menopause, which so far, has been brutal. I also was laid up for six months last year with a bone bruise in the knee and a meniscal tear. That was also a ton of fun.

[tex]

Hello Deb,

This may or may not apply to you, but I also take armor, except I only take one grain (60 mg). About seven or eight years ago, when I slowly developed a magnesium deficiency, I had exactly those same symptoms. Eventually, it caused my GP to cut my thyroid does in half, and my heart started skipping beats. The biggest clue was that I would wake up in the wee hours of the morning with tachycardia (110–115 bpm), sweating like a pig (even though the weather was cold), with shallow, rapid breathing, and one night I checked my blood pressure during a reaction and my systolic pressure was in the 80s. During the daytime it would often be 160–180. When I would describe my symptoms to my doctors, they just stared at me like I was from some other planet. I had to figure it out myself. But this situation can be dangerous, so please proceed carefully.

Tex

[DebE13]

Thanks Tex, I do feel like I'm on my own with this one. My PCP has ghosted me and I may need to find another. Problem is- Armor still seems to be taboo. I haven't seen an endo in about seven years since synthroid is their only option. Sadly, my PCP is on the other end of the spectrum and tells me we can't use ANY of the thryoid numbers because it's Armor. Well, that's not true either and it July, both my FT3 and FT4 were out of the ranges and high. My mistake for letting it ride and skipping doses to try even it out. I was afraid he'd cut my dose or worse yet, want to switch me to synthroid. It was summer and I pushed off the pulsative tinnitus (primarily in the evenings and at night) hoping it would go away. Easy to be distracted in the summer months with kayaking, going up north, cycle riding and just enjoying the warm weather. Menopausal hot flashes have been brutal so I was debating if that was part of it.
Come September, it became intolerable and I went back in and insisted my dose needed to be adjusted. I went from 90/120mg daily to 90/90mg and was convinced it would be too big of a cut. Fast forward to last week and my numbers are still too high. I was shocked. The timing was bad. I saw the cardiologist a few days prior and that was the first thing he brought up was my thyroid numbers. I was adamant it was not since my dose was cut and it had been eight weeks. I don't believe he understood why my TSH is at zero and talked about me being HYPOthyroid which made my heart sink. I asked about the pulsative tinnitus and he looked at me like I was nuts and told me if that was why I was seeing him, I was seeing the wrong doctor. I was relieved that results from the holter monitor showed something at least. I was thinking it may be in my head. He told me I have too much adrenaline and it's causing extra beats. He advised the beta blocker and said I didn't need to see him again. Which was also a bit confusing. The 25mg a day didn't do much but upset my GI and caused more D. I did end up going up to 25mg/2x day since it wasn't doing much (he did tell me to do that).

My report finally was posted to my account and it showed the minimum heart rate over the two days was 52 beats per minute and the high was 159 (happening at 3:51 AM). The conclusion is sinus rhythm, sinus tachycardia, or sinus rhythm with premature atrial contractions. I messaged my PCP and asked about lowering the Armor to 90/60 a day and testing again in 8 weeks. My response from the nurse was that the cardiologist said it was not my thyroid numbers and how was I feeling on the beta blocker. I promptly explained that he came to that conclusion because I was adamant it was not. Well, I was wrong. No response so I skipped my afternoon dose two days in a row and am currently taking the 90/60.

I've also been tracking my blood pressure and the beta blocker has helped a bit but I still have regular readings of stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension. Not that I want to take one more pill but I am surprised that wasn't the first thing they focused on.

Meanwhile, the pulsative tinnitus is maddening. I was hoping the beta blocker would help but it only has improved marginally. Before the cardiologist I was referred to ENT to have my hearing tested and have a brain scan. Nothing there. I was prompted kicked back to my PCP, which is good I suppose since there is apparently nothing structurally wrong but then it was like pulling teeth to see the cardiologist.

I don't know if I should wait another 8 weeks to see how I feel when my numbers come back into the normal range? I'm assuming the BP is related to that also since I've never had high BP. I was going to move on and try to see a neurologist but don't want to spend more money when it makes the most sense that high thyroid numbers and high BP would be the underlying cause. Not sure how much impact menopause has on this but it seems every specialty I see, pushes me off to somewhere else.

In the meantime, my MC is not too happy with my choices. I was supposed to have my colonoscopy in October but ended up pushing it off until the end of December since I wasn't sure it would be too smart to stress my body even more with the prep and sedation.

Even though most of this is not gut related, anyone reading this can at least see how a series of bad choices can lead to a snowball effect that can circle back around and have negative impacts on an already sensitive GI system.

[tex]

Have you had an RBC magnesium test, recently? Hypertension is associated with chronic magnesium deficiency, and so is high TSH, at least in my experience. But, it's too risky to experiment with magnesium if you're having heart issues, which makes this a very tricky situation.

Tex

[DebE13]

Thank you for the information. I will add that to what I request for labs. I've never had that tested before. I take a magnesium supplement- most likely not enough now that I look at the bottle. I get leg cramps at night and it seems to help. I just noticed the serving size is two tablets. I have only been taking one a day so the 200mg (from 2,000mg magnesium lysinate glycinate chelate) is acutally 100mg that I'm taking.

I've been struggling with my PCP because I already asked for a retest of my ferritin and the nurse just never answered my message. In July, I was at 34 ng/mL and was concerned but he was not since it's in the "normal" range and all my other labs are normal. I'd say I am pulling my hair out but it's falling out just fine on its own. In July of 2017 I was at 161 but he didn't seem to find that of interest. I started taking Proferrin again which I've taken before and it doesn't give me a stomach ache.

So far, it appears that I'm just falling through the cracks since each specialty doesn't seem to want to take the time to figure the underlying causes. I suppose it's just easier to send me on to the next doctor.

[tex]

The reason I developed a chronic magnesium deficiency in the first place, is because the stuff I was taking only gave me half of what I thought I was taking. Leg cramps are a dead giveaway of a deficiency, especially if taking magnesium helps to resolve the problem, because if magnesium resolves the problem, that rules out potassium, calcium, and other electrolyte deficiencies (which can also cause leg cramps at night). These days, I take 300 mg of Doctors Best brand of magnesium glycinate, divided up after meals (in other words, three 100 mg tablets per day).

You've brought up the biggest problem with the medical profession — they can only handle single, simple health issues. They all want to specialize. If we have more than one health issue, or our health issue causes problems with other body systems, no one in the healthcare system wants to take responsibility for our care. Our GP tries, but how can they be expected to know everything all the specialists know about their specialties. Specialists should be required to offer help regarding any other body system problems that are sometimes associated with their specialty. But instead of doing this, medical protocol (and hospital regulations) specifically requires them not to offer advice on issues outside their own specialty. Because of that, we're forced to be responsible for our own health, which means that we have to know more about proper healthcare, than they do.

Tex