Beta Blockers and Edema

[Lenin]

access,

Your doctor is wise...LASIX is a VERY good idea.

Generally speaking, people who retain water and have hypertension are in the salt-sensitive minority...I consider myself squarely at the top of this pyramid.

We salt-sensitives respond beautifully to diuretics for our hypertension and almost not at all to ARB's or ACE inhibitors and only modestly to beta blockers (although they DO have some diuretic properties and thus are of some benefit.)

Mark my words, if your water retention bothers you, you will LOVE your furosemide (Lasix.) I have tried the last 3 days without it and ate Indian last evening and I am up 6 pounds, all my joints hurt, and I can barely make a filst. I am waiting til I eat something to take my 40 mg. Lasix and pee all this out...it works for about 3 hours. I will probably need tomorrow's dose to complete the job although I COULD take a second dose today///but that would cause me to be thirsty all night long.

AND it's cheap.

Honestly, with Lasix, you might find you are able to do without the 100mg. atenolol, which would be a blessing.
Give Lasix a try at 40 mg. (You MIGHT need a potassium supplement...I don't!)

Nicest drug I've ever taken...oh well, maybe after Demerol and Valium!

[accessn12]

Hi lenin,

I don't have hypertension. I've always pretty much sat square on the perfect 120/80 except when the thyroid kicks into high gear and then I get the normal wide pulse pressure of a hyperthyroider at about 130/70 or something along those lines. My thyroid causes tachycardia, arrythmias and an increased cardiac output. Causes a lot of other problems with the increased metabolism for the rest of my body but the beta blockers pretty much control a lot of the symptoms.

I most likely will have to take beta blockers for the rest of my life. I don't have much choice there. The thyroid almost killed me once and I don't wish to ever go back there again.

Since I have succesfully taken beta blockers for 18 years, I can't understand why I am currently having this problem. My bp's been staying stable. Pulse is staying under 100 but I have been feeling quite ill ever since I started bloating last february. Nobody will look for the root of the problem. And besides, this lasix makes me wanna puke. Every day I've taken it, I spend the rest of the day trying to keep from losing my cookies and it also seems to be dropping my bp down to a max of 110/70. This is only 10mg, mind you.

I have trouble believing that after all this time that the betas may be the problem so that's why I asked if anyone else had problems with betas and this much water. I've got a strong feeling that it's something else going on entirely and I'm going to have to start jumping up and down on the pcp's head in order for him to take this seriously or to get him to do anything about it.

I'd very much like to hear that other's have had this same problem with betas. I really don't like some of the alternative possibilities very much.

[Lenin]

To answer your question square on:
I really REALLY doubt that your beta-blocker is contributing to your edema. That would be antithetical to the way beta-blockers work.

[accessn12]

Not exactly what I wanted to hear but pretty much what I expected. My pcp doesn't seem to know a whole bunch about betas. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about them after a little incident last september when he switched me from 160mg/day of inderal to 25mg atenolol and landed me in the er where I was told I could go as high as 400mg if needed. I went as high as 250mg. This 100mg just isn't doing it.

I gather I'd be pretty safe going back up again and not have to worry that it is contributing to the waterworks problem especially since dropping the dose doesn't seem to have any impact on it anyway?

Can't tell you how much I appreciate the input.

[Lenin]

I feel that if a person isn.t responding well to a beta-blocker for any reason, then it's unlikely raising the dosage to sky-high limits is going to do much good, and probably a LOT of bad.
If 100 mg. atenolol, a very HIGH dose, doesn't deliver then I think the answer is to find another drug.

This current lower dose is not doing anything for the water, isn't controlling the weird heart thingys and isn't making my thyroid very happy either.

And of course, the perfect drug class for edema is a diuretic.

And besides, this lasix makes me wanna puke.

There are several other diuretics you can choose but that sounds like a funny reaction to Lasix. Have you ever tried taking 40 mg? Try it for 2 days and check out the effect on your edema.


Anyhoo,
It sounds like it might be time to tackle your thyroid directly. If it is furiously overactive then perhaps surgical or radioactive iodine reduction should be considered. A lifetime of megadosing with beta-blockers may not be the answer becasue of the all-over body effects. There are drugs that work directly to suppress the thyroid: check out methimazole and propylthiouracil (PTU).

What is your blood pressure now with the 100 mg. atenolol per day. What was it BEFORE you started beta-blockade? Why do they keep changing your beta blocker?

edit:

Let me correct my past statements...further research informs me that beta-blockers CAN INDEED cause edema. Live and learn!

So accessn, it seems time to find another treatment regimen...DO check the radioactive iodine because it is the most common treatment and safer than surgery.
Whatever you do, DON'T up to 200 or 400 mg. atenolol.