I have an extremely Hard/Heavy heartbeat.

I've had a heavy heartbeat on and off for over 15 years. I think it's a combination of Stress, Caffeine, Fatty Foods, Dehydration, and overall fitness and nutrition. For me, cutting out coffee/caffeine, eating better, and drinking more water relieves 90% of the symptoms. These problems did not exist 50-100 years ago so all this is a product of the processed junk we are eating/drinking.

OK, I think I've finally found a cure after having this issue for most of the last 15 years. First, let me state that I've had a bad diet for most of my life and I went from a high school weight of 175 to over 200 by the time I was 35. I ate a lot of fast food, sodas, diet sodas, candy bars, chips, ice cream and everything else you can think of that's not healthy. I was 38 when I first started having this Heavy Heartbeat and I had to use my hand as a buffer between me and my pillow. The doctors tested me and could find nothing wrong. Eating better and drinking more water along with exercise helped but it never completely went away..until now.
About a month ago I read in Discover magazine that intermittent fasting is really promising, it can do wonders for people with bad diets and help lose weight. So, right away I started a 18/6 fast every day where I would not eat anything for 18 hours and then have a couple of meals(about 2000 calories) during my 6 hour window. It's really not hard to do this if you just tell yourself "don't worry, you're still going to eat in a few hours". The theory is you'll eat less and allow your body to feed off its own fat stores along with other great benefits. Trust me, I used to eat all day all the time and I'd even wake up to get something to drink or eat. I've been doing this intermittent fast for 24 days now, lost about 4 pounds and most amazing of all I don't have any symptoms of a heavy heartbeat anymore! One person on this board stated they think the cause is your Vagas nerve is being overstimulated and it's not really your heart beating hard but the overstimulated nerves are "feeling" your pulse more intensely.
I think this intermittent diet must relieve this from happening or something similar to this effect. I can't tell you how happy it is to lie in bed and not feel my heartbeat pulsing through my body anymore. I recommend to everybody reading this to try this 18/6 intermittent fast it's worked miracles for me. Good Luck!

I can relate, my pounding heart caused me to call my cardiologist but after reading these posts realize I am experiencing the same symptoms . No pain just totally uncomfortable esp in bed and trying to sleep. It is very distracting and worrisome.

Just a reminder I really think this Heavy Heartbeat is caused by the Vagas Nerve being overstimulated by our unhealthy lifestyle of constantly eating/stressing. My problem practically went away overnight the first time I gave my body a break by not eating for 18 hours straight, then eating in a six hour window. It could/should work for you too just give it a try.

See a heart specialist ASAP. If you have a pounding heartbeat, that "hurts", ...then you should be given a stress test, and echo cardiogram and a live exray with dye injected. I can't remember what they called it. I had it done. It showed a thickening of the heart muscle on the left side. That was 10 years ago. I'm not dead yet. lol !