Expert: Harriet B Jacobster, Au.D. - 7/20/2009

Question
Hello Harriet,

I wanted to consult someone who has more knowledge then i have and looking this up on the internet and reading the different results are just either annoying or freaking me out. So i figured before i get ahead of myself i'd ask someone with intellgence on this. Or at I hope.


This problem started happening to me earlier this year and basically i can hear my heartbeating in my ear, before it was just at night, it was so loud i couldn't figure out what it was until i realized it was my heart. It sounds like a dishwasher running in my ear. However nowadays when i dance my usually routine and sit down i feel a little dizzy now and its beating rapidly, like i don't breathe heavily anymore afterwards I just hear it beating, and it scares me sometimes. Also wheni'm sitting quietly and calm i can hear it to. Lastly if i concetrate on it enough i can control how fast it beats and how slow it beats. Is that normal? i read somewhere its a sign of a stroke or something and that scares me a bit, cause i'm only 17 and the fact that i'm pretty fit and have a fast metabolism is beyond me why this is happening. However i used wheni  was little have a heart murmer, i wa sborn with one but it's gone away now somehow i felt my heary stop beating for millisecond...i felt a sharp pain in my chest and then boom it was gone, has never happened since. No other symptoms either. That was when i was 12...are there any reasons why this could be happening? i don't see how those have anything to do with this? caus eif it didn't wouldn't have started ahppening right afterwards.

I have asked some friends and they seem to have the same problem. however one friend said she doesn'r or her family has said she doesn't breathe when she is thinknig or daydreaming but it doesn't change anything about her normally. Another friend has it to but she's diabetic...the only link i see between all of us is that we've had some sort of other medial issue or such. I just wanted some claification on this, something that will giv eme some insight. i'm overboard worried with wanting to seea doctor, unless that needs be, but really, why is this happening?

thanks and i hope you can help,

concerned teenager


Answer
Hi Carly,
I can certainly understand your concerns.  A heartbeat-type sound in the ear is usually due to a circulatory abnormality.  If you have a cardiologist that you have consulted before, I suggest you do consult him about this matter.  

Hope this helps.
Dr. Harriet B. Jacobster, AuD
Board Certified in Audiology