Metoprolol is a popular prescription medication primarily used to treat high blood pressure.
Hi this pharmacist curtis alexander in this video i want to touch on metoprolol side effects and just as a side note people struggle to pronounce it it is pronounced metoprolol and before we get into that if you enjoy this video appreciate a thumbs up also subscribe to the channel if you want to learn more about medications supplements that sort of thing so as
Far as the moa or the mechanism of action of metoprolol it’s there’s different kinds of blood pressure medications and this falls into a class called beta blockers now you have different beta receptors throughout your body metoprolol is a selective beta 1 blocker and you have beta 1 receptors in the heart and the kidney in case you can’t tell that’s a kidney
I’m a really good artist but you have these receptors these beta one in the heart and the kidney and so it blocks those receptors without hitting your beta twos and your beta twos are in your lungs your gi tract your liver uterus and your muscle tissue now that becomes important because if you’re blocking those receptors it’s going to affect those other muscle
Groups when it comes to blood pressure we really would just want to be hit in the heart so it’s good in that regard now what we see another advantage of metoprolol is that when you dose it under 100 milligrams you don’t see any um it’s called the msa which is uh the membrane stabilizing activity basically it it best way to describe msa it’s like a nerve block um
It’s a nerve conduction thing so you don’t see that and you also don’t see any isa or intrinso intrinsic sympathomimetic activity fancy term just basically saying that it can block and also stimulate the beta receptors at the same time and that’s a really confusing thing to think about your head that it can do both at the same time but under 100 milligrams it
Does not do that now when you start getting into higher doses you can see some of that stimulation and blocking of the beta 1 receptors as the doses get higher so it’s something to keep in mind most of the time you know going above 100 milligrams it’s not an extremely high dose but it’s rare to see it go that high so anyway that’s how metoprolol acts in the body
And i wanted to point that out because when you understand the way something acts in the body the side effects start to make a lot more sense so when it comes to side effects i try to focus on just the more common things that you’re likely to see and so first and foremost obviously it’s it’s lowering your blood pressure sometimes it can go too low in people and
While that seems really obvious you can see this in up to 25 of people where it’s just it goes too low and you have to adjust the dose that happens low pulse rate again we’re hitting those beta receptors in the heart so the heart rate can go down two to sixteen percent of people the blahs while it only says one to ten percent of people this is a complaint i get
A lot from people who are on beta blockers um not that ninety percent of people get it it’s just the thing people verbalize the most because it’s the most frustrating form by the blahs it means that people just don’t feel that good they have low energy um and we’re if you kind of look at the next one some people they feel depressed and that’s part of really the
Blas is they’re just they’re not themselves they don’t feel all that good they don’t feel like going out and doing a bunch so that can become problematic for people so i already mentioned depression in the last major one that we see is dizziness again we’re lowering the blood pressure that can be a side effect of of the medications so dizziness in two to ten
Percent of people can be seen so again pharmacist curtis alexander i would appreciate a thumbs up also subscribe if you want to see more and until the next video i appreciate your time thanks
Transcribed from video
Metoprolol Side Effects: The 5 Most Common + Why The Dose You Take Matters By Curtis Alexander Pharm.D.
