Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure (CHF) or heart failure is the condition in which heart is not able to pump enough blood to the body so it can meet its basic requirements. The disease is a result of high blood pressure and coronary artery disease that makes the heart too weak or too hard to properly fill up with blood and to pump it efficiently.
It is not possible to reverse the conditions that lead to the failure of heart however after the heart failure good results can be gradually achieved. If you start immediate treatment of signs and symptoms that depicts heart failure than the chances of survival are multiplied. Substantial changes in lifestyle for example less intake of salt, regular exercise, managing increasing stress, losing weight and treating depression can help in the prevention of fluid buildup.
The best way to avoid the heart failure is to manage the risk factors and controlling the high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and coronary artery disease.
Symptoms of Heart Failure
Acute heart failure is a condition that a person at once feels due to the emergence of onset signs and symptoms. Heart failure is a disease that is chronic and develops very slowly and is a long term condition. Congestive heart failure is a condition that comes when blood is congesting or backing up in liver, lungs, abdomen and lower extremities.
We can discuss the signs and symptoms of heart failure with respect to the various types of heart failure. Some of the signs are as follows:
- Chronic Heart Failure
There are long term signs and symptoms that persistently prevail.
- Rapid and irregular heart beat
- Dyspnea that is the shortness of breath when you exercise or exhaust or even during rest
- Weakness and fatigue
- Decreased ability to exercise
- Edema (swelling) in the patients’ feet, ankles and legs
- Wheezing or constant cough with pink or white blood stained phlegm
- Swelling of abdomen
- From fluid sudden weight gain
- Reduced alertness and difficulty in concentration
- Nausea and lack of appetite
- Acute Heart Failure
The ability of a person’s heart is suddenly affected when emergency occurs as the reaction of sudden affect. Signs and symptoms of acute heart failure are:
- More severe all those signs and symptoms that have been witnessed in chronic heart failure while the signs start to worsen at once
- The buildup of fluid suddenly
- Chest pain resulted by the heart attack
- Severe or sudden shortness of breath and the coughing up of foamy, pink mucus
- Irregular hear beat or rapid heart beat that severely affect the heart and may cause it to stop at once
Additional Observations for the Patients of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure
Your doctor besides knowing that your heart failure is chronic or acute will also take notice of few other signs such as:
- Heart filled with blood,
- Heart failed to pump,
- And both.
Heart failure can involve the right side, the left side or both sides of heart. The most typical heart failure is found with the left side and commonly in left ventricle that is the main pumping chamber of one’s heart.
- Diastolic Heart Failure
The diastolic heart failure also known as heart failure with normal ejection fraction is the condition in which the left ventricle of heart can not fill fully or relax and includes the problem with filling.
In past it was assumed that systolic heart failure is the most frequently seen condition that is not very serious however the advancement of study and research have pronounce the assumption incorrect. Isolated diastolic heart failure is as common as systolic heart failure and have same prognosis.
It is pertinent to figure out that one is suffering from which type of heart failure whether it is systolic, diastolic or a combination of both because the treatment of three states is far different from each other in terms of drugs.
Causes of Heart Failure
A number of reasons can lead one to the failure of heart. The development of heart failure corresponds with the other conditions that have gradually weakened or damaged the heart or some key parts of it. With the passage of time the heart starts to show impotency in fulfilling its routine requirements. Between the beats the ventricles can remain failed in filling up properly. The muscles of heart can also get weak and the ventricles can stretch resulting in the inefficiency of heart to pump the required blood to the body.
Below mentioned are some of the causes that can lead one to heart failure with gradually worsening the state of heart. Many of these causes prevail without giving away any kind of symptom.
- Coronary artery disease and heart attack: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of heart disease that is unfortunately the leading cause of heart attack. The builds up of fats narrows the passage of arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle, a process that is named atherosclerosis. The speed of blood through narrow arteries slows down while leaving behind some parts of heart unsupplied with oxygen rich blood. These muscles get weak with time. In many cases the muscles remains alive as some amount of blood is provided to it but not sufficient enough to keep up the functions of muscle. The rupture of plaques in the arteries leads to the heart attack. A clot of blood can come into the way of the blood and thus block the flow of blood to a specific area of heart muscle while weaken the ability of heart to pump.
- Hyper tension or high blood pressure: the force with which blood is pumped by the heart through arteries is blood pressure. In case of high blood pressure the heart is working harder to circulate the blood throughout the body. With the passage of time the heart can be enlarged as the muscles of heart will be thick to compensate the over work and results in too stiff or too weak heart muscles that are not able to function effectively.
- Defective heart valve: the four valves are responsible for keeping the flow of blood in one direction. In case there is some fault with any of the valve then the heart works harder to keep the blood flowing usually. This can make the valves weaker with the time. A defective valve if detected in time can be replaced.
- Cardiomyopathy (damage to the muscle of heart): there are a number of causes that can lead to the damage of heart muscles known as cardiomyopathy such as alcohol abuse, infections, and toxic or side effects of chemotherapy and drugs like cocaine. In addition to these causes some body diseases such as lupus or thyroid ailment can badly affect the heart muscles. Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy is the condition in which no certain cause of damaged heart muscle is discovered.
- Myocarditi: the inflammation of heart muscles is known as myocarditis. The condition is caused by virus and usually leads to the failure of heart.
- By birth heart defects (congenital heart defects): in case one’s heart and it apartments are not constructed perfectly then the heart is bound to work hard to meet the needs of its routine requirements. The genetic defects are responsible for aggregating some of the heart diseases that can lead to heart failure.
- Heart arrhythmias (Abnormal heart rhythms): abnormal heart rhythms can make the heart t o beat very fast and hence triggering it to work harder. Heart will be weak over time. A slow heart beat will disable the heart from collecting enough blood from the body and hence the heart failure will emerge.
- Other factors: some chronic diseases such as severe anemia, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, emphysema, hypothyroidism, lupus, amyloidosis and hemochromatosis also contribute in the failure of heart. Acute heart failure is caused by a number of factors including virus that can attack the muscles of heart, allergic reactions, severe infections and the blood clots in lungs.
Risk factors of Heart Failure
Research has shown that heart failure can happen just with one risk factor where a combination of multiple factors can only multiply the intensity of the situation. The risk factors that lead to heart failure are as follows (we have refrain from providing repetitive information of the factors that are already elaborated in the segment of Causes of Heart Failure):
- High blood pressure
- Coronary artery disease
- Heart attack (damages the heart muscles and leads to heart failure)
- Irregular heart beat
- Diabetes
- Medications used for the treatment of diabetes (drugs like rosiglitazone (Avandia) and pioglitazone (Actos) are discovered to be harmful for the heart. Those who are using them must consult their doctors immediately and cut the use later on.)
- Saleep apnea (if one is unable to breath properly in night it means that he or she has low levels of oxygen at night. The situation leads to abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure.)
- Congenital heart defects
- Viruses
- Abuse alcohol
- Kidney condition
Herat failure is one of the most critical situations that can strike a human being at once and it should be better than those people who are already inflicted with high blood pressure, a heart attack or coronary disease must undergo clinical observations at regular intervals so the threats of a sudden heart failure can be smelled earlier. It is same with all disease that a change in eating habit and regular exercise can improve the chances of getting rid of heart failure and in case one has gone through one than adopting good measures and avoiding the bad habits will surely strengthen the chances of recovering the loss. In time treatment of diseases and infections that can result in the heart failure is encouraged. High blood pressure patients are advised to learn who to manage stress so they might not get critical at once.
Heart failure is a condition that can also encounter you without any prior alarm. The affected person must be rushed to the hospital for immediate treatment any delay will lead to irreplaceable loss of one’s life.
Last but not the least is the fact that prevention is better than cure. If one has changed or kept a healthy life style since the very beginning than there is no chance that any disease whether of heart or some other organism can strike him or her. Knowing the body and its demands is also important in adopting good and balanced eating habits. We hope that the section of heart diseases will help you in improving the life of your heart.
