I have been having mild but chronic chest-pain (tightness), and have had several tests recently. Everything came back normal except for a mild mitral valve prolapse. My doctor wants to put me on “endoral” (sp?), which he says is a beta-blocker. When I asked what that was, I was told that they give it to people for all sorts of things, also including migraines and high blood pressure.
So, SDMB doctors, I turn to you for education. What exactly are beta-blockers and how do they work? Are there any particular concerns I should have about taking them?
When I search for endoral on the web, I don’t find much. Do I have the spelling wrong?
They are drugs which block the beta-adrenergic receptors. Beta-adrenergic receptors are found in many tissues throughout the body, and have functions throughout the sympathetic (i.e. fight-or-flight) response. They are activated by epinephrine, norepinephrine, and to some extent dopamine. There are two main classes, beta-1 and beta-2, and different drugs block these to varying degrees (as well as having some effect on alpha-adrenergic receptors). The drug that he put you on is probably inderol (its generic name is propranolol).
Beta-adrenergic stimulation does things as diverse as dilating the eyes, increasing heart rate, increase myocardial contractility (the force with which the heart beats), dilates the bronchioles of the lungs, and increases blood pressure to a certain extent. So beta-blockers block these things – they slow heart rate, decrease blood pressure, but can exacerbate asthma sometimes. They are also useful as anti-arrythmics, against stagefright, and a bunch of other things.
First of all, the correct drug is probably Inderal, generic propranolol.
Edwino was pretty much right on, however there are some selective beta-blockers as well. Atenolol, for example, is beta-1 selective. Inderal is a non-selective beta-blocker. Beta-1 affects primarily the heart, while Beta-2 primarily affects bronchial smooth muscle. It’s easy to remember, 1-heart, 2-lungs.
Thanks edwino . I was reading abount a different beta-blocker (I don’t remember the name), and it gave a warning about suddenly stopping the medication (saying you should probably be weaned off of it). Is that just a concern because of the possibility of sudden blood pressure/heartrate increase, etc.?
The generic name for Inderol is propanolol, and I can tell you from personal experience it works great as an anti-arrythmic. I take a small amount every day (10mg x 4/day) for episodic supraventricular tachychardia, and I haven’t had an episode since I started taking it.
It’s also dirt cheap. At my pharmacy, I can get 360, a 3 month supply, for less than 30 bucks.
People have to react differently to changes in their environment. The body reacts to excitement by increasing heart rate, sending more blood to where it is needed by changing the size of blood vessels, dilating the pupils and so forth. When the excitement passes, the body can concentrate on its more mundane “housekeeping” functions such as digesting food.
So the body needs switches to turn fight or flight functions on and off. This is done, in part, through beta 1 receptors in the heart and beta 2 receptors in the lung. Beta 1 receptors increase the heart rate, beta 2 receptors help the lung airways expand. The idea of a heart medication is to block the heart receptors without interfering too much with the lungs.
Beta blockers are also used for headaches, blood pressure, glaucoma and tremors.