Beta Blockers and Blood Pressure

[Guest guest]

Hi all

Please could someone give me some advice. I've been weaning myself off propranolol for just over a month now. Was on 80mg. Started by taking one every other day instead of every day. Then changed to 40mg daily for two weeks without any probs. So dropped to 30mg and after a few days started getting a bad headache with a pounding in my ears. My friend who is a nurse said it sounded like my blood pressure was high so she checked it for me and it was 184/109. I thought if I just rested it would just go down again, but a couple of days later I started to feel unwell, very tired and still with a pounding head.

I've been like this for a week now and my GP refuses to come see me. I've spoken to her on the phone and she says she's not unduly worried that my bp is still around 170/100. She wants me to go back up to 80mg of propranolol a day! She doesn't even know if it's the propranolol withdrawal that is causing the high bp! She's more or less given a diagnosis over the phone.

If I do this I feel I'll be back at square one and I really want to get off these beta blockers. They were prescribed for anxiety initially even though they interfere with thyroid meds! I don't particularly want to be on blood pressure meds either. So, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any natural ways to reduce blood pressure? Also, has anyone else had experience of withdrawing from propranolol?

I'd like to be able to get through this without seeing my GP as after the phone call things between us are a bit frosty!! Then again, I am a bit worried about my blood pressure as it's causing symptoms i.e. bad headache and pounding in my ears. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Gill x