Heart failure, often referred to as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a chronic, progressive condition that affects the pumping power of your heart muscles. While often referred to simply as “heart failure,” CHF specifically refers to the stage in which fluid builds up around the heart and causes it to pump inefficiently.
There are several key aspects to understand about heart failure:
Causes and Risk Factors: Heart failure is usually caused by other conditions that have damaged or overworked the heart, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, heart attack, and diabetes. Lifestyle factors like smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol levels can also contribute to developing heart failure.
Types of Heart Failure:
Left-sided heart failure is the most common type, where the left side of the heart must work harder to pump the same amount of blood.
Right-sided heart failure often occurs as a result of left-sided failure. When the left ventricle fails, increased fluid pressure is transferred back through the lungs, ultimately damaging the heart's right side.
Systolic heart failure occurs when the heart muscle doesn't contract with enough force, meaning less oxygen-rich blood is pumped out to the body.
Diastolic heart failure (also called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction) occurs when the heart muscle contracts normally but the ventricles do not relax properly, reducing the heart's ability to fill with blood.
Symptoms: Symptoms of heart failure can include shortness of breath, fatigue, swollen legs, rapid heartbeat, and persistent cough or wheezing.
Diagnosis and Treatment: Diagnosis often involves physical examination, patient history, blood tests, chest X-rays, echocardiograms, ECGs, and MRI. Treatment usually includes a combination of medication, lifestyle changes, and possibly surgery (like valve repair or replacement, coronary bypass surgery, or devices like pacemakers).
Lifestyle Management: Lifestyle changes such as exercising, reducing salt in your diet, managing stress, treating depression, and stopping smoking are crucial in managing heart failure.
Prognosis: While heart failure is a serious condition that requires lifelong management, many people with the condition lead full, enjoyable lives with the help of medical treatment and lifestyle changes.
It's important for individuals with heart failure or those at risk to work closely with their healthcare provider to manage the condition.