Beta Blocker and Keto

(Robin) #21

Yep. I also miscalculated the risks and severity of consequences. Darn it.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #22

My understanding is that it’s a different situation with every virus and bacterium. But it’s surprising how much one can pick up from a family full of nurses, lol!

#23

As a long-term Atenolol taker (for palpitations) I’m surprised to hear you appear to have stopped cold-Turkey, i.e. without tapering off, and evidently without checking with your doctor. My general understanding of beta-blockers is that they can be tricky and even dangerous to stop, and the one experience I had just changing from one BB to another in the early testing stages sent me to the ER with a crazy racing heart. You’ve had no difficulties whatsoever?
As for does a BB limit weight loss, I don’t see the logic to that idea. I’ve had a similar weight loss to you followed by a stall, although I weighed less than you initially so my loss was a higher percentage of my total weight (I’m an over-60 female should it be relevant). Although the plateau in terms of weight loss is frustrating as I’d like to lose more, in other senses it’s reassuring to me that eating this way (which I love and find very easy) my body does settle at a new, lower weight. After all, continuing to lose weight with no end in sight would be pretty problematic!
Personally I’m considering moving toward carnivore to see if that jogs my complacent metabolism. Some interesting discussions on this forum about that BTW.
As for Covid, my husband and I both experienced loss of smell in slightly varying degrees – him for several days accompanied by light cold symptoms, me for a single day with no other symptoms. It was utterly bizarre and unprecedented to have zero nasal congestion but to be absolutely unable to smell ANYTHING: freshly-cut garlic, menthol, nothing, even jammed right up to my nostrils! But according to a cousin who’s a physician, that was incontrovertibly Covid. So – weird!

#24

This thread has been dormant, but it’s directly on point for what I want to ask about, so I’m reviving it. I was prescribed the beta blocker carvedilol (aka Coreg) because of suspected portal vein hypertension. At the time, I had been taken off valsartan (Diovan) because my blood pressure normalized on its own after losing 75 lbs. on keto. My understanding is that beta blockers work by blocking the effect of adrenaline, which slows the heart but seems to slow everything metabolically. My resting pulse dropped from around 70 to around 60, and sure enough I stopped losing weight completely – my first real stall since going keto. Maybe it was coincidence (these things happen), but I felt less energetic. That had its advantages. I seemed calmer and less fidgety, but I hated the idea of a pill doing that. Anyway, my medical problem turned out to be a false alarm, and I was permitted to taper my carvedilol. Today is my first full day without any, and I already feel a little bit revved up. I look forward to seeing if weight loss resumes. Any other beta blocker stories?

(Bob M) #25

That is very interesting. I’d love to get off carvedilol, but can’t. I have been able to lose weight, but slowly.

#26

I’ll come back in a week or two and let you know how it went. So far, so good. I had my last dose Tuesday morning. Since then, as expected, my pulse rate is up and my blood pressure is up just a bit. Unexpectedly, I have been dumping a lot of dilute urine over the last couple of days, enough to show up on the scale. I don’t know why that would happen, so it might be coincidence. At age 68, I am at a stage of life when it seems that most of my friends and acquaintances take something for hypertension and that we spend way too much time talking about our various conditions and drugs. (“What drugs do you take for blood pressure?” “All of them, Katie.”) I get the impression that beta blockers are not a common first-line treatment these days. They only come into play when someone requires a combination of drugs, or at least no one I know is taking one unless they are taking a couple of other things as well. (I am not, of course, a doctor.)

(Bob M) #27

How did you taper? How much were you taking? How long did it take to taper?

I’m think of cutting back a bit, as my blood pressure is getting really low if I exercise in the heat. Also, my heart rate is really low (49 this morning).

#28

Good morning, Bob. My adventure with carvedilol was fairly brief. It was prescribed on June 27 because of suspected liver disease causing portal vein hypertension. I think the doctor’s decision was “better safe than sorry” while the diagnosis was confirmed. I was taking 3.125 mg twice a day, but I think the plan was to give me more if I could tolerate it and needed it. After my liver turned out to be okay, the doctor told me to cut back to one dose per day for four days, then stop. So the taper was fairly brief, but the dose was never especially high to begin with. By the way, for what it’s worth, a heart rate of 49 strikes me as very low indeed. I believe I was told to check in with the doctor if my rate went below 55.

(Bob M) #29

I’ll have to check with my doctor. Of course, when I go there, my heart rate won’t be near 49.

#30

I thought I would bring you up to date with respect to my going off of carvedilol. My resting heart rate went from 60ish to 70ish, which is where it had been. It is 69 today. My heart rate when exerting myself when up. There were several weeks when I just could not get to 130 no matter how hard I worked. The other day while bicycling I got up to 145. I think I may be going a bit faster too, but that is not a rigorous conclusion. The most interesting thing is that I began to lose weight again. I have been slowly but surely dropping for months. For six weeks, my weight just bobbed up and down in a narrow range. In the three weeks or so since I stopped, I’ve gone down another five pounds. I can only conclude that carvedilol must slow down resting metabolism a bit. Maybe over time my system would have adjusted, but I am glad to be off.