What is heart failure?
Congestive heart failure or heart failure tends to occur when the muscles of the heart fails to pump sufficient blood. Certain conditions for example high blood pressure or coronary artery disease leads the heart to become still or weak enough to pump and fill efficiently. Furthermore, not every condition known for causing heart failure is reversible; however its treatment can help improving your symptoms. Lifestyle changes for example losing weight, regular exercise and managing stress can improve the quality of life.
In order to prevent the serious condition, heart failure, it is important to control conditions knowing to cause it, for example obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure or coronary artery disease.
What are the symptoms of heart failure?
Clearly, heart failure tends to be acute or chronic, however few of its common symptoms include:
- Irregular or rapid heartbeat.
- Breathing difficulties.
- Weakness or fatigue.
- Swelling in the feet, ankles, and legs.
- Persistent wheezing or cough.
- Chest pain.
- Increased blood pressure.
- Decreased alertness.
- Nausea.
- Difficulty concentrating.
- Lack of appetite.
- Ascites.
- Instant weight gain due to fluid retention.
- Increased urge to urinate during night time.
What causes heart failure?
Heart failure tends to occur after certain conditions weakens or damages the heart, making it unable to meet the demands- pumping blood to your entire body. These conditions are:
- Heart attack.
- Coronary artery disease.
- Faulty heart vavles.
- Cardiomyopathy.
- Myocarditis.
- Congenital heart defects.
- Heart arrhythmias.
- Other diseases for example amyloidosis, hemochromatosis, emphysema, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or diabetes.
What are the risk factors of heart failure?
Combination or particular factors that can lead heart failure include:
- Diabetes.
- Heart attack.
- Coronary artery disease.
- High blood pressure.
- Certain diabetes medications.
- Sleep apnea.
- Congenital heart defects.
- Viruses.
- Alcohol consumption.
- Irregular heartbeats.
What are the potential complications if heart failure?
Certain complications linked with heart failure include:
- Heart valve problems.
- Kidney failure or damage.
- Liver damage.
- Stroke.
How is heart failure diagnosed?
In order to diagnose the condition, the doctor will perform a thorough physical examination and will need the medical history of the patient. Few tests, your doctor can suggest include:
- Chest X-ray.
- Blood tests.
- ECG.
- Echocardiogram.
- Ejection fraction.
- Stress test.
- CT scan or MRI.
- Angiogram.
- Myocardial biopsy.
How is heart failure treated?
There are numerous options your doctor can review prior preparing your treatment plan. Lifestyle changes accompanied with regular drugs structures the initial line of its treatment. Gradually, the doctor can offer you more progressive treatment options of heart failure, such as surgery.
Prevention:
- Quit smoking.
- Consume healthy diet which includes fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Managing and reducing stress.
- Controlling some conditions for example diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
- Exercise daily for at least 25 minutes.
- Shed excessive fats.
By : Natural Health News
