Questions reg. Metoprolol and weight gain other options...

Good afternoon! I would like to see if anyone knows about what I am just reading. I at the moment am an afibber who happens randomly and am using the PIP (Fleccainide & Eliqu) for conversion. Without waisting too much time on details. I am trying to put together a lifestyle approach that will allow my body to be as good as it can. I am taking Metoprolol 2x a day, but I am having a spell where there is an uptick in episodes recently. With that said, I had a conversation with a person from Dr Woldsons group called "The Natural Heart Doctor". In the conversation she recomended that afib patients follow a more "paleo" way of eating cutting ALL flour, wheat, and grains. Now, I have realized that in spite of working out like crazy, I am putting on weight. Some of which may be part of "season of life" type things, however. Before I was on Metoprolol regularly, and I was exercising, I was losing weight. Its only since Ive been taking it religiously, that I have gained so I started looking down that road, and what I saw surprised me. It said that with Metoprolol use, it can cause weight gain as well as increases your diabetes chance by 30% and can cause insulin sensetivity (not sure if Im saying that correctly). This was on another natural heart doctors site not Wolfson. So, just wondering to myself, if me putting on weight is indeed affected by the beta blocker and also perhaps causing some insulin issues? Also wondering if the Metoprolol is worth taking if Im going into afib anyway? Thanks for reading, hope everyone is well.

IF the metoprolol does encourage weight gain, then it would be the gained weight, and not the metoprolol, that, in turn, begets metabolic syndrome and possibly Type II diabetes. But metoprolol has a good rep for keeping heart rates down when the heart is experiencing bouts of paroxysmal AF, and even when in persistent and permanent AF. So, it has its purposes and uses.

I blamed statins for my loss of oomph and subsequent weight gain.

Metoprolol does have a nasty way of making some people develop bradycardia...very low heart rate. Happened to me, and I know it happened to Carey as well. Not only that, but long pauses between beats occasionally. We're talking pauses 8-12 seconds long! And heart rates down into the low 30s. This doesn't happen early in one's exposure to metoprolol...I think...it was that way for me. But as my dose began to climb because my AF evolved and began to come more frequently, there were times when I got the pauses and very low heart rates when I broke back into NSR.

Your last question: yes, metoprolol, if dosed properly, will clip your AF heart rate and help to keep it near 100 or lower. At least, that's the plan.

Metabolic syndrome and its successor, diabetes type ii, are actually 'insensitivity', not sensitivity, to insulin. Insulin works by encouraging adipocytes to take in fats. As the fat cells get bulked up close to their max, they begin to need more insulin, and then more insulin, until they hold their hands up, palms outward, saying 'Basta!'' That's when your blood sugars are uncontrolled because the insulin simply won't work any more, but your pancreas is still pumping it out overtime. So, the fat storage cells lose their sensitivity to insulin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2024 10:19PM by gloaming.

Quote
LaDonna
I am taking Metoprolol 2x a day, but I am having a spell where there is an uptick in episodes recently. With that said, I had a conversation with a person from Dr Woldsons group called "The Natural Heart Doctor". In the conversation she recomended that afib patients follow a more "paleo" way of eating cutting ALL flour, wheat, and grains..

How often are your episodes and how long are they on average? Am I understanding that you take Metoprolol 2x a day, every day, but only take flec (and eliquis?) when you have an episode? If this is correct, you might discuss with your doc about taking Metoprolol only when you have an episode to control rate and to mitigate the 1:1 atrial flutter risk from flecainide. Metoprolol generally doesn't prevent afib, it justs controls rate when you are in afib to mitigate the risk of heart failure from higher rates (>100 BPM) and also the flutter risk from flec. Hence taking it all the time may not be appropriate.