What is a soft heart murmur in adults?

Have you ever heard a strange sound coming from someone’s chest? And no, we’re not talking about snoring. We’re talking about heart murmurs! If you’re like most people, the term “heart murmur” probably conjures up images of ominous medical conditions.

But what if we told you that there is such a thing as a soft heart murmur in adults? Yes, it exists! And it’s not nearly as terrifying as it sounds. In fact, some people have them without even knowing.

So let’s take a closer look at soft heart murmurs and learn everything there is to know about this weird-but-not-actually-weird phenomenon.

What Are Heart Murmurs?

Before we dive into soft heart murmurs specifically, let’s first quickly define what they are. Essentially, when your doctor listens to your heartbeat with a stethoscope (you know, that cool metal thing that gets super cold against your skin), they’ll hear two distinct sounds – lub-dub.

These sounds actually come from the valves in your heart opening and closing properly to allow blood to flow through each chamber. However, sometimes those valves don’t quite do their job perfectly smoothly – maybe one isn’t fully closing or there’s an extra beat somewhere – resulting in additional whooshing or swishing sounds called “murmurs”.

Murmurs can vary in intensity and duration depending on how loud or long the valve irregularities are happening for. Hence why some murmurs are classed as ‘soft’.

What Causes Soft Heart Murmurs?

Let’s start by saying: A soft heart murmur doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong with your ticker; these dang-tootin’ things could be normal!

In fact most people will experience some kind of innocent noise emanating from their hearts at some point during their life. This could mean you’ve had a soft murmur all your life and never even known it.

So why do they happen? Soft heart murmurs can be caused by lots of things, including:

  • Pregnancy
  • Some medications
  • Physical activity (like exercising)
  • Infections
  • Anemia or underactive thyroids

But most often, these little noises are simply due to the blood pumping through your heart a bit quicker than usual.

Symptoms of Soft Heart Murmurs

Now here’s the – not- really – fun part: Most so-called ‘innocent’ heart murmurs don’t cause any symptoms whatsoever. But there are some rare cases where they might cause strange chest sensations or irregular heartbeat (which is more commonly called an arrhythmia).

If you do experience any strange feelings in your chest though, it’s definitely worth asking for some medical help! Arrythmias in particular can sometimes require further investigations but best to check just how spooky that murmur is!

Pro tip: If you’re curious about whether or not have a soft heart murmur, talk to your GP! They’ll listen carefully with their stethoscope during one of those appointments where they grope around random parts of our anatomy (!!!) As we said earlier – many people won’t ever know anything about having one unless their doctor mentions something during an examination.

Diagnosis & Treatment for Soft Heart Murmurs

In regards to diagnosis and treatment… well if it ain’t broke don’t fixit’!

Most benign soft heart murmurs don’t need any special treatment at all; although doctors may ask patients to come back periodically so that pesky technician can poke around in areas we’d rather keep covered!
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However if there is concern over whether the sound isn’t as innocent as first diagnosed then investigation via Echocardiogram/Kidney function/Blood tests or more rare cases, referral for a specialist might be necessary to garner more information on the true source of any heart noise.

At last resort or in severe documented murmurs that cause disruption, certain treatments include valves repairs/replacements some medication may also work and in rare/extreme cases surgical procedures

(Don’t just imagine what that sound was though…It’s not worth speculating either way!)

Can Soft Heart Murmurs Be Prevented?

Unfortunately we can’t control the hand of fate when it comes to having these but as with many health issues there are general lifestyle provisions you can undertake in looking after your heart function. Diet plays an important aspect – hypercaloric diets with high levels of unhealthy fats notoriously ever so slightly make their job harder. Alternatively including daily exercise is always helpful which will overall benefit circulation and oxygenation throughout our bods– who knows, maybe it’ll help regulate any lumpy noises going on too!

Wrap Up

So there you have it — soft heart murmurs aren’t actually that scary at all! While the weirdest part about them might be knowing they’re there without every paying them any attention sounds strikingly silly (‘oh hi murmur I didn’t see ya!), most people won’t even need medical intervention thanks to these noisily-yet-aesthetically-pleasing conagasements emanating from our ticker boxes…

Just don’t forget – if you do experience something abnormal (whether related to potential murmurs or otherwise) talk to a professional before opening Web MDS;Self-diagnosis only has its limits!

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