Audible heartbeat - even to other people !!

Same here.

I am 44 years old and this suddenly started about 6 months ago. Did you ever find out if this is a serious problem? I spoke to a cardiologist and she said that this is not possible. Unfortunately it does not happen every time so I can not demonstrate it at will.

did you ever find out what it was? i heard someones heart beating like that b4 and no one believes me.

yep i got the "strenuous exercise" audible heartbeat that my girlfriend can hear too. Are you guys still alive?

Yes, this is very possible! My husband can hear my heartbeat within a few feet when my heart rate exceeds 100 . I was even able to record it with my iphone! I'm getting o checked out now, but it's hard for me to communicate to doctors or others that it really can be heard externally. Will find out next week when I do an electrocardiogram and stress test.

I also have this at times when my heart rate is above 100. I've had 4 people hear this within a couple feet away. My doctor has never heard of such a thing. I guess it's not a big deal. I had an ekg and echocardiogram and my echo showed Mitral vlave prolapse, which is pretty common. I don't think this has anything to do with the audible heartbeat though. I'm hoping to find someone on the net who can explain this. It's frustrating to explain to doctors.

A loud, sometimes even visible heartbeat (left side skin/breast movement) is very normal, but not all that common. I'll bet the one who see this are thin or very thin! Nothing to worry about. I actually think it's very sexy to see this on a woman!

I also have this now and then when I feel strong emotion (good or bad) and sometimes during sex. My husband has heard it many times. I also had an EKG, and was also told I had a slight mitral valve prolapse, but not to worry about it other than that. Weird, though!

I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse when I was 15 yrs old. I am now 46yrs old and have begun to hear my heart beat in my left ear. It's as clear and loud as if I were listening with a powerful stethospcope. I may also have slight shortness of breath at the same time. It ususally happens after some physical exertion. I haven't had anyone else say they can hear it from a short distance, but if I am leaning forward on something stationary my body moves in rhythm with the beat.

Hello,

Recently I heard my sis's heat beat in the night at 2 occasions within 1 or 2 week's time while we were lying on the bunk bed (she on upper deck, I on lower deck), and in between these 2 times, at one occasion, I heard it while she's in bed and i was sitting at the desk near it.  She's thin or normal build, light smoker, recently slightly stressed due to physical distress after a small surgical operation (the surgery itself not likely to be related to the audible heart beat) as well as pressure at workplace.  The rythm did not sound especially fast or slow as a heartbeat.  It puzzled me a lot as I did not realise it was her heartbeat.  I thought it was some neighbours upstairs or downstairs banging on something, or some bass/drums noises from maybe a car down the street (it was quite similar to the sound you hear from the walls when some neighbors are knocking stuff - bong   bong   bong, just that it was too rythmical and consistent for that ) It was only when I talked to my sis about the sound did she tell me it's her heartbeat which she herself also heard.  She often keeps a horrible posture when sitting at her desk (at home of course) staring at her PC watching videos or stuff, during which she sits with her upper body bent at an angle of 40 degree approx., putting her chin on desk surface (cushioned by her favorite bear cushion).  i can't understand why she feels comfy with this posture and suspect that this might be causing her problems with her cervical spine which in turn caused the audible heart sound, as I have seen one post which mentioned that his case of such audible heart sound coinciding with the discovery of C3-C4 problem, and that he has seen another post from someone with a case just like him.

My sis has not yet consulted a doctor regarding this audible heart beat as of now.

I'd like to ask whether you have any neck pain / headaches around the time it happens ? 

Sorry for the long and clumsy descriptions.

I'm probably one of the other people mentioned who has the C3-C4 problem (I posted about it before at another site, I think). I have fusions from C3 to C7, plus bone spurs inside my spinal canal.  I also have a reduced mitral valve velocity (just mentioning it because of the people who mentioned the mitral valve prolapse).  It looks like we may have found out why I have the audible heart beat.  I most likely have a thymoma and I am thinking that is what is causing the audible heart beat. The thymus is next to the heart and I think that my heart might be whacking my thymus sometimes and causing the sound.  After I saw the first cardiologist who he treated me like I was crazy, although he did do an echo and an EKG, I recorded my heartbeat by holding the recorder about 2 feet above my chest and then saw another cardiologist. She said because the beat was regular and nothing else was showing up in tests she thought that there was nothing to worry about.

Since then, I have had some really weird symptoms that seemed not related and were usually subtle but are now coming together such as sensitivity to spicy food; sun and heat sensitivity; extreme weakness in my arms, hands,upper back and neck, and sometimes my hips, legs, and feet; nasal regurgitation; butterfly rash on my face that had lots of lymphocytes in the biopsies; double vision when looking at things at a distance ( was told it was astigmatism but classes never helped); difficulty chewing and swallowing; Raynaud's phenomena; Sjogren's syndrome; extreme fatigue; "staggered vision" (when I see freeze frames instead of a smooth image); "staggered breathing" (when I have an asthma-like inhale; I have been told for about 20 years it was asthma but since I've been on Mestinon it's gone away); plus more.  I am in the process of being diagnosed as having myasthenia gravis.  I'm already on a trial of Mestinon and I'm getting my life back quickly. It took a long time to diagnose because of seemingly disparate symptoms in addition to all the neck surgery and injuries I have had.  I spoke with my current cardiologist yesterday and he agreed that a thymoma could be causing the audible heart beat.

I'm thinking that some other people with an audible heart beat might have something similar because people keep mentioning that they are thin/very thin (symptom of a thymus problem - of course of other things too), have problems with their necks (C3-C4 and posture problems could have a root cause in muscle weakness as opposed to the C3-C4 and posture problems being the root causes), and I had other ideas but they just jumped out of my head. LOL

To the person asking if there is any pain associated with it, I would have that there was no pain associated with it previously.  Since being on Mestinon, I now realize how sore my muscles had been, how much pain I was in, and I had been attributing it to poor posture at the computer and while reading, existing neck problems, exercising wrong, etc.  The only headaches I ever get are when muscles pull at the base of the back of my head.

I hope this helps someone!

I'm overweight and can see my heartbeat on my neck.

I remember another reason why I thought some people might have a thymoma problem also. I don't see it in the posts on this site, but other people have posted that it happens when they have a high heart rate usually greater than 100 or 120 bpm. They noticed the rapid heartbeat and the audible heart beat (not always at the same time, but sometimes at the same time) independent of exercising as well as sometimes when exercising. I think this could be significant for thymoma because one of the symptoms of a thymoma is a rapid heart rate. Just a thought.

Hi JeannetteEB,

I was the person asking about neck pains / headache, thanks for stopping by and your sharing!

What a coincidence that I ran across your post, and then you ran across mine in different sites :P

Recently I don't hear my sis's heartbeat anymore(so it was just that 2 times), but I will keep an ear out for it.

Thanks again for your info, gave me ideas of some possible causes and lessened the worry.

regards,

WK

hi all,
 this thread makes interesting reading as i thought iwas all alone on this subject.
i have recently had a similar occurance, about two weeks ago whilst i was on holiday i kept getting pounding headaches after about 2-3 minutes of waterskiing, and a week later during sex with my girlfriend i experianced a similar thing, i came to the conclusion that it must be something to do with exertion.
then a few days ago, again during sex we both heard a loud "thumping" noise and and at first we both guessed it was the dogs tail wagging against a wall or door somewhere in the house, then she realised that it was actually my heart beating! i couldnt believe it! it was so loud!
i have also experianced the loud heartbeat in the left ear thing several times of late.
i have to admit that i'm never that keen on visiting the doctors at the best of times.....especially  after reading some of the threads on here suggesting that the doctors find it hard to believe that someone else can actually hear your heart beating!

it is a worry though, so i guess i should get it checked out,
if anything interesting comes of the visit i shall post the details on here, maybe it will be of help to someone else,

p.s. i have also experianced slight neck ache during the headaches too, roughly where the neck connects to the base of the skull.

fingers crossed its nothing serious,
 hope this may be of help to someone.