Protruding heartbeat

I do not know if you've received messages on this, but I have experienced the same exact thing.

My heartbeats are often very strong & powerful & can feel heavy or hard. I never knew how to describe this sensation much. It is sort of like having a fist inside my chest (where my heart is) and the fist pushes outward as my heart beats (not punch or anything, just pushes out). It does not hurt - but just makes me aware of my heart beat more then I should be.

I know this is not normal.

Not only does my heart beat noticeably hard, but it is visible if you look at my chest or put anything on my chest or stomach - it will move up and down very noticeably in rhythm with my heartbeat.

I have experienced this for years & have been to a doctor who didn't notice anything. Actually several doctors have never found anything over the years. I do not know if nothing irregular was found because it happened to be when my heart wasn't doing this... No clue.

All I do know is that if someone has felt my heart beating, they too will notice it is a hard, strong heartbeat that isn't similar to others.

Since nothing has been found, I often wonder if I should be more assertive. It would seem to me that this strong, hard, protruding heart beat makes the heart work harder than it should be and I wonder if that is good for the heart? Wouldn't all this extra work on the muscle make it tire faster? I am not putting a death sentence on this but it just seems like a doctor would acknowledge this.

Anyone else have a clue? Just curious.

Thanks.

It is fairly commonplace for a person (normally a man) who is thin around the chest to see the heart beat. When you think about it, and look at your chest you will become even more aware. Because you are aware of it you will probably think about it even more and become quite anxious, which will in turn increase the speed of your heart. You may even link muscular pain in your back / chest to your heart - which it is not.

If you can see your heart beat then you will likely have very little fat around your heart - which is a good thing.

In every likelihood you will be completely healthy, get a quick check up with your GP. They may send you for an echo (ECG) to look for any minor flow problems in you heart. In any case put your mind at rest.... stop looking for problems / self diagnose on the Internet – it only makes the problem worse!

I am sure all will go well!

I have experienced the same thing. I put my phone on my chest and it went up and down in rhythm even
before I took a breath. I was wonder if this was normal. I`m very skinny and female.

I have been having the same stuff happening and went to the doctor to get it checked out. He said I just have a strong heartbeat and that's actually a good thing. Also you might just have a 'thin chest frame' which I have also. So I'm sure its nothing to worry about. :-)

I have this as well. In fact, I've actually been able to even see my left chest twitch. I also noticed once when I was laying down I could feel the different parts of my heart contract. It's scary for me because I've been sort of tachy lately. but according to my mom (who is starting to finish nursing school), my hearts fine. I'm still afraid of heart issues (probably because I haven't been feeling well at all the past three months).

funny how people totally misunderstand what others are saying... or maybe it just hasnt been explained well enough so I'll give it my best shot. I found myself on this page because I too am experiencing these symptoms and I can tell you that it is not normal and not usual either.. Ok, so here is what's going on and what I think the others are trying to explain....Underneath the rib cage right at the very top of the stomach there is a strong thumping....when you press on the top of your stomach you can feel it thumping.. It seems to be thumping with the same rhythm as the heartbeat but is NOT a heartbeat.. It feels like it could be an artery thumping or a muscle...but it is not painful just bothersome and scary I would like t know what it is too! it's very pronounced and thumping quite hard..

Metoo:  The "thumping" that you are refering to is actually from your thoracic aorta.  This is the artery that supplies the entire lower body with blood.  As such, it will have a very strong pulse.  When the above comments were mentioning placing something on the stomach and having it move with their heartbeat, it is actually the pulse from the thoracic aorta that is causing the object to move and is quite normal although not everyone experiences it.  I would not worry about it.  If it still worries you, you can go to a doctor or start monitering your blood pressure (some stores have some products that you can check your BP with [walgreens, walmart, etc]). Does it bother you all the time or only sometimes? See if there is a difference in your blood pressure when the thumping is bothering you compared to when it is not.  Or (if it bothers you all the time) check to make sure that you have a normal blood pressure and that it is not too high.  If you have normal blood pressure, then I would not worry about it.  If you notice that it is a bit high, then you could check with a doctor if you are worried.  Chances are that there is nothing to worry about.

The visible heartbeat on the chest is less common and could be worrisome.  It is sometimes common for thinner people to see the visible heartbeat on the chest.  However, it is also one of the signs that a nurse is taught to look for while doing a complete physical.  If this is seen, it will cause the nurse to make sure that there are no other signs of cardiovascular distress (rapid or irregular heartbeat, high BP, rapid breathing, dizziness, pain, etc) in the patient.  If everything else is normal, then chances are that the heart is fine.  If any of those other signs are present, then more indepth testing is usually done.  Again, it could be that you just have a really strong heartbeat which can actually be a good thing.  Try not to get anxious about it (which in the end will increase the heart rate even more).  If someone is still worried about it then they should go see a doctor.

I'm only 13 and this is happening to me but I'm not super skinny, I'm 5-7 and weigh 147 pounds but I'm not overweight, I have very small boobs though, I also feel pain on my sides and I feel a bubbly feeling in my stomach like I'm bloated, please help me I'm really scaired and I have aching muscles in my arms, my legs, my thighs, my knees, and even in my hands, please please please please please help me, I can't stop crying and I haven't told my parents.

Hey Bryanna, I'm not a doctor, but I have experienced symptoms like yours (all of them). It sounds like they're scaring you, i can understand that. Stuff like that is frightening if you don't know what it is. I'm replying to you because I guess if you're like me you might have been looking regularly, maybe nervously to see if anyone has replied.

Stress feels unpleasant, so I thought I'd share my experience, and so maybe you feel like someone understands why you're worried. I started noticing that I had the heartbeat thing described here about 10 years ago. I could hear my heart beating in my ears too. It worried me.

I got more worried, and the more worried I got the more problems I got (muscle pain, abdominal pain, diarroeah, sometimes light headed, headaches, inability to concentrate, poor memory & more), and the more nervous I became, I'd jump when the phone rang or if someone knocked the door even! I had to have my heart checked out by coincidence, had an ECG, doctor said it looked particularly healthy. It didn't make sense.

I spent a lot of time thinking really hard about what might be the problem, sometimes I couldn't think about anything else. And I started having trouble sleeping, I became scared of talking to people about it, like I had to sort it out by myself. I have access to consultants as a matter of routine, and they never find anything wrong with me. I should say, it's always worth seeing your doctor, just to be sure, but it sounds like you're experiencing something like me.

My breakthrough came when I realised I didn't want to feel like this anymore, and my fear of how I felt was more than my fear of talking to someone. I met someone who explained how your body responds to fear, it described what I was feeling. I actually got a bit angry with him, like he was ignoring the facts, but the more he explained the more it made sense. When something scares you your body changes the way it works. It does it whether you're in danger, or if you think you are (the bit of your brain that does it can't tell the difference).

If you worry a lot, your body gets really good at it, and the symptoms in your body feel worse. I got better by understanding what my body was doing, and how to change it. I spoke to a cognitive behavioral therapist.

hope that helps: )

Jon

That would be your apical pulse.

Well back in 1998 at Approximately 10 pm I was laying very relaxed on my bed watching TV. I even recall what was on. My left hand was stretched out above my head, back of my hand touching the headboard (the head board was not attached to bed just propped up between bed and wall so loose.) All of the sudden I hear 4 loud thumps, feel the bed shaking and hear the headboard bang 4x against wall all in succession. It happened very quick. I laid there at first thinking "What the heck was that" and immediately felt a pain in left side of chest. I just laid there confused and a tad scared dozing off. The next morning trying to raise out of bed a sharp pain hit my chest, I grabbed it and felt a swelling and a lot of pain, eventually went to ER and was diagnosed with TOS. I asked what that was and he said "basically you have a rib out of place". That made perfect sense after what I had experienced that night, well since then it has given me grief had other diagnoses as to what it was. It is difficult for me cause non of these " Specialist" hear me when I tell them my story which to me should be reallllly relevant. They just don't believe me and I have researched off and on since 98 to see if I can find another story like mine, but still can not after all this time. I have many complications with it worse now then ever before no ignoring it like I have for yrs before...

If I put my hand on my left chest I can actually feel the force of my heart against it, pushing it away right the way around my heart area. Is this normal?

I had similar experience few nights ago. I was sleep and my heart moved so hard that I thought it is coming out of my body. It put me out of bed, on my feet. It pumped 3 to 4 times after the first bang and then stopped. 10 seconds later few more pump and it stopped. I fell asleep again. It is the strangest feeling. I have felt few hard heart beat once in a while within the past year and thought it is because I exercise hard or when i have my lap top on my stomach laying down. But this was so strange, my heart was literally coming out of my body. I am calling my doctor tomorrow. This cannot be normal.

I started having these symptoms when i was 16, only 17 now, so it's been a constant battle for almost a year. Whenever I exercise or get up quickly, I can feel my pulse pounding in my head. Also you can see my pulse just by looking at my shirt or even my neck, I am constantly shaking in sync to my pulse. The latest thing to hit me is that I can now feel the palms of my hands shaking and even the veins on my temple have bulged and started pulsating on and off. I have general aches and pains in my shoulder, legs and back. I went to a clinic within a couple days of my first experience and he didn't find anything wrong. I have been to my regular doctor twice and the ER once after I started having panic attacks because of all this stress, nothing was found and my BP was excellent. I am very skinny though and this was initially brought on after I started working out last summer and I think I pushed myself too much and then had constant anxiety for a solid 10 months. I am gradually getting better with no recent "attacks" but I still have this strong pulse and occasional aches.