Bubbling/fluttering feeling in chest/lungs that makes me cough?

October 22, 2024 9:24 AM

A couple times a year I will randomly get a feeling in my chest suddenly of a bubbling or fluttering. (Not liquid in my lungs, not phlegm.) It lasts for about 5 seconds and makes me feel like I have to cough in order to catch my breath. So I do, and then the feeling goes away completely for another 6 months or so. This has been happening for as long as I can remember. I can’t recall it ever happening when I’m lying down, it never lasts longer than about 5 seconds and doesn’t affect my quality of life, but it is a very strange sensation. Have any of you experienced this? Any ideas what this could be? I’m not worried about my health, just curious.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Heart palpitations?
posted by Jacqueline at 9:33 AM on October 22, 2024 [6 favorites]

Could be a heart murmur (eg: mitral valve prolapse) causing occasional palpitations. Mine does this from time to time.
posted by aramaic at 9:57 AM on October 22, 2024 [2 favorites]

Could be a fib

I have a fib myself. My sensation and frequency of it is very similar to yours. None of my practitioners have ever flagged it to be as grave, in my case, as it’s often written about on front page Google results. I gather this is due mostly to the fact that it happens infrequently and not severely (ex fluttering vs trouble breathing), and that other potentially comorbid issues are getting dealt with / aren’t a concern.
posted by seemoorglass at 10:16 AM on October 22, 2024

I get this with heart palpitations. Usually for me it's on and off for a day or so, and follows excessive caffeine consumption or maybe stress.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:38 AM on October 22, 2024

Acid reflux
posted by transient at 11:53 AM on October 22, 2024

Sorry, that was off the cuff. I’ve had very similar symptoms over the years and that’s always what they say it is for me.
posted by transient at 11:54 AM on October 22, 2024

Everything but the coughing matches what I feel with PVCs. FWIW, PVCs are almost always not troublesome to the heart.
posted by cooker girl at 12:04 PM on October 22, 2024 [2 favorites]

If it is arterial fibrillation, you should tell your doctor about it so they can correlate with any current or future issues e.g. so it's in your file.

(A-fib is one of the things an Apple Watch will monitor and warn you about if it detects it happening.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:22 PM on October 22, 2024 [1 favorite]

You can get a heart rate monitor for your smartphone and might be able to catch odd heart beats.
posted by theora55 at 2:54 PM on October 22, 2024

My heart palpitations feel quite like that and cause me to cough.
posted by slateyness at 3:01 PM on October 22, 2024

It sounds like what I get now and then, which IIRC is some kind of minor fibrillation and feels like a sort of heart-adjacent fluttering. I asked my doctor, they hooked me up to a multi-patch monitor for 5-10 minutes, then said they detected nothing unusual and that this kind of thing is common and generally harmless, but probably nevertheless probably good to have on your record for that off chance it comes up later.

You're definitely not alone in this!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 6:57 PM on October 22, 2024

Response by poster: Oh wow, thanks everyone for the answers! I’m glad I asked because I wouldn’t have connected it with my heart! Thought it was my lungs for some reason. I will bring it up next time I see my doctor just so it’s on my file.

Transient, I do have acid reflux too but this seems kind of unconnected to my episodes. But I suppose it could be! I’ll see what the doc says.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:14 PM on October 22, 2024