Congestive heart disease is a physical disorder in which the heart no longer pumps hard enough. Since the heart pumps weakly, blood can back up into the lungs, liver, gastrointestinal tract, and extremities.
Congestive heart disease is also called congestive heart failure (CHF), cardiac failure, or heart failure. These names can be misleading, since they seem to indicate that the heart has totally failed and that death is imminent. This is not the case. Congestive heart disease is nearly always a chronic, long-term condition, although it does sometimes develop suddenly.
How Common Is Congestive Heart Disease?
Of 100 people between the ages of 27 and 74, approximately 2 have congestive heart disease. That means about 6 million people in the U.S. are affected by the disease. After age 74, congestive heart disease becomes more common. It is said to be the leading cause of hospitalization among senior citizens.
Causes of Congestive Heart Disease
Congestive heart disease has many causes. They include, but are not limited to, the following causes:
* Weakening of the heart muscle due to viral infections. The weakness may also be caused by toxins such as alcohol abuse.
* Weakening of the heart muscle by coronary artery disease that has led to heart attacks.
* Weakening of the heart muscle by heart valve disease that involves large amounts of blood leakage.
* Heart muscle stiffness caused by a blocked heart valve.
* Uncontrolled high blood pressure, also called hypertension.
* High levels of the thyroid hormone.
* Excessive use of amphetamines ("speed").
Symptoms of Congestive Heart Disease
Either side of the heart muscle may weaken and cause congestive heart disease. The symptoms of congestive heart disease depend on the side of the heart that is affected. They can include these:
* asthma that can be attributed to the heart
* blood pooling in the body's overall circulation
* blood pooling in the liver's circulation
* enlargement of the heart
* shortness of breath
* skin color that appears bluish or dusky
* swelling of the body, especially the extremities
Congestive Heart Disease Risk Factors
As is true with most heart disease, family history is a major risk factor for congestive heart disease. Genetics cannot easily be altered. Age is a second risk factor that cannot be changed. Congestive heart disease is particularly prevalent among older people.
Aside from those two, however, risk factors can and should be addressed. Here are 7 risk factors for congestive heart disease that you may want to discuss with your health care provider.
1. High blood pressure: This is the highest risk factor for congestive heart disease! Men with uncontrolled high blood pressure are twice as likely as those with normal blood pressure to suffer congestive heart disease. If a woman has uncontrolled high blood pressure, she is three times as likely as women with normal blood pressure to develop congestive heart disease.
2. Heart Attacks: This is the second highest risk factor for congestive heart disease. Those who have had heart attacks that resulted in damage to the heart muscle, and scarring of the muscle tissue, have increased risks of experiencing congestive heart disease.
3. High Cholesterol: Showing high levels of cholesterol, particularly when levels of HDL are low, is listed as another risk factor for congestive heart disease.
4. Diabetes: Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are risk factors for developing congestive heart disease.
5. Obesity: Men and women who are overweight unnecessarily increase their risks of experiencing congestive heart disease. The heart must work harder when the body is not at a healthy weight, and can begin to lose its ability to deliver blood efficiently.
6. Prolonged Physical Inactivity: A sedentary lifestyle, with little exercise, puts people at risk for congestive heart disease, especially as they increase in age. The heart needs cardiovascular exercise to remain strong and able to function well.
7. Smoking: Smoking increases the heart's workload. It also affects the lungs. This is a risk for congestive heart disease that anyone can eliminate.
Congestive heart failure is a dramatic and potentially deadly occurrence. It is a contributing factor is the deaths of 300,000 more individuals each year. Congestive heart failure is a condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood efficiently to all tissues. It is the most common cause of hospitalization for people over 65 years of age. Congestive heart disease is easily confused with breathing difficulties, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, and asthma.
The human body is a fantastic machine that works in harmony with nature. The machinery needs proper care and sometimes parts replaced on occasion. Likewise the heart also needs help to prevent failure. It may not pump enough blood to meet your body's needs, which can lead into congestive heart failure. Many other underlying conditions can also cause congestive heart failure.
Over time and with the wear and tear of the body the heart can develop such things as coronary artery disease or high blood pressure, which can lead to congestive heart failure. These things sap your strength leaving the heart with the inability to pump efficiently causing a very dangerous break down. It is very important that you take care of yourself because these things while not reversible are quite preventable.
There are many medicines and procedures that can treat the conditions you have to improve your survival rate. These medications if taken properly can help control your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other things that might be adversely affecting your heart. The field of medicine has come a very long way in recent years providing medicines to prevent congestive heart failure.
The cardiologist who is a heart specialist can inform you about surgical techniques such as by-pass surgery or stents to help open up the flow of your blood through your veins. Many things are possible to help prolong your life. You need only ask your doctor for advice as to what you need. It is quite possible for you to do things for yourself that will help a heart in good health.
Congestive heart problems may be prevented by making changes to your lifestyle. This does not always need to be a big change but some things in your life are controllable. Firstly look at your diet. Eating a heart healthy diet is very important for your heart. Watch out for excessive salt intake, fatty foods, and sweet indulgences as these can cause congestive heart failure. The problem of being over weight can lead to other problems such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. These conditions need to be kept under control in order to prevent heart failure. In today's world it is increasingly important to know how to manage stress, overcome depression and simply improve the quality of our life.
Managing stress can become a stressful problem in itself for many people. Many people enjoy the benefit of belonging to a gym or owning equipment that they use in their homes. Some of us do not have the time, money, or space to afford such items. A person who sits daily in his office may feel the tensions building up to the point of no relief and even go into a depressive condition. This is very bad for the your heart. Our hearts feels our emotions like love, sadness, hate, excitement along with stress and depression. Heart failure is the number one killer of men and women can be easily be prevented. Prevention begins at home with you learning to take care of your needs.
Please remember that if you are not taking care to prevent congestive heart failure you will be missing all those extra years with your loved ones and friends. My grandmother died before the birth of my children and I have always regretted that she didn't get to meet them. She was a very heavy smoker for many years and it seriously impacted on her health. Even what might be considered small steps will help to ensure that you don't become a victim of congestive heart failure.
Very many individuals don't know what congestive heart failure is or what it means for their life, and they ask themselves, "Is congestive heart failure the end of my world?" It's a terrifying moment for most patients: the moment when the general practitioner enters their hospital room and informs them they are in distress from congestive heart failure.
Congestive heart failure begins when, for whatever reason, the heart cannot effectively pump the blood all through the body. This in the main occurs while the heart muscle is weak owing to disease or stressed beyond its ability to perform. Congestive heart failure is generally a secondary disease following another cardiac condition, primarily either coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies, myocarditis, valvular disease, or cardiac arrhythmias, with coronary artery disease carrying the poorest prognosis. It could also follow a myocardial infarction, renal failure, sepsis or even severe anemia.
Each side of the heart has a differing function, and therefore will have a slightly different effect on the body while it is unable to fulfill that function. If it is the left side of the heart that has failed, accumulation of fluid in and near the lungs will make the patient to experience difficulty breathing, and the kidneys will respond to the reduced blood levels in the circulation by retaining fluid as well. If it is the right side that fails, the excessive fluid accumulates in the venous system, conferring on the patient a generalized edema that becomes more and more severe as their condition deteriorates.
Dyspnea is the prevalent presenting symptom in congestive heart disease, while the severity will vary from patient to patient. Some will possess perfectly ordinary pulmonary function until under exertion, such as whilst exercising, walking up stairs or mowing their lawn; others will have so much fluid retention that simply rising from bed in the morning will prove to be difficult.
These patients will also normally get fatigued due to a lack of oxygen to the tissues. Heart failure will also create a condition known as pitting edema, in which the body retains fluid to the point that as stress and strain is applied to a specific spot on the body the indentation remains (non-pitting edema is not caused by heart failure).
The treatment of congestive heart disease consists primarily of treating the symptoms. Vital signs should be taken regularly, and quite often diuretics will be prescribed to ease expulsion of accumulated fluid from the body. While in the hospital fluid intake and output will be measured carefully. Patients will very likely be placed in an upright position to help in moving fluid from around the heart and lungs, given potassium supplements and prescribed bed rest for a period of time. BUN levels and serum creatinine, potassium, sodium, chloride and bicarbonate levels are monitored repeatedly by a doctor.
There are numerous elements that contribute to congestive heart failure and, if diagnosed, must be treated and maintained. These include hypertension, anemia or poycythemia, endocrine disorders, malnutrition, drug or alcohol usage and not least obesity. As a result, it is very important that patients suffering from congestive heart failure pay particular attention to maintaining a generally healthy lifestyle. A family doctor can help in establishing the best diet and exercises with each person to reduce placing undue tension on the heart and lungs.
Whilst no cure exists for congestive heart failure and the prognosis varies from case to case, with the use of a strict diet and activity program, taking all prescribed medications regularly and maintaining a close relationship with their physicians abundant patients who suffer from congestive heart failure can continue to lead a fairly natural life.
Congestive heart failure is a dramatic and potentially deadly occurrence. When there is no longer enough oxygen being transported in the blood stream, the heart cannot maintain its function. Many people who have a first heart attack do not know that they have congestive heart failure until the heart attack happens. Five million American adults have heart failure. Between 400,000 and 700,000 new cases of heart disease are identified every year. Congestive heart failure is a contributing factor is the deaths of 300,000 more individuals each year.
The causes of congestive heart failure are not immediately known. In treating a heart attack, the priority is to restore function and keep the patient alive. After the patient is stable, testing may begin to determine the exact nature of the heart problem. Coronary artery disease may be underway with plaque blocking the arteries for years before it is detected.
These problems may be due to a structural problem such as aortic or mitral valve prolapse. The mitral valve that opens and closes between heart chambers can stick, like a door sticks, open or shut. Blood may back up into the system causing still more problems. Persons with high blood pressure are at risk for congestive heart disease and must make every effort to keep blood pressure controlled.
A lesser known cause of heart problems is Cardiomyopathy. This type of heart disease is due to an infection that enters the heart muscle. The inflammation in the heart muscle can be attributed to viral infection. There is no exact virus type or method which causes cardiomyopathy and there is no known cure. Once the heart is weakened from the infection, the weakened heart no longer pumps adequately and the result is congestive heart failure.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute by age 40, one in five men and women are at risk for heart problems. Among persons who are known to have this serious condition, 80% of men and 70% of women under age 65 die within eight years of their diagnosis with congestive heart disease. Not only does congestive heart disease impact the heart, but it also adversely affects the ability of the kidneys to process sodium and water.
The EKG test was shown to be an excellent means of identifying potential heart problems victims among 38,000 post menopausal women in a study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. This new information can help physicians make early diagnosis of heart disease and begin treatment before heart failure occurs.
An important part of recovery from heart problems is cardiac rehabilitation program. This program is multi-faceted with fitness evaluation, customized exercises, nutritional plan, medication management and behavioral counseling. Exceptional cardiac rehabilitation programs also offer vocational counseling to help patients return to work or find other jobs if necessary as well as support groups for cardiac patients. The success of cardiac rehabilitation after congestive heart failure depends primarily on how much the patient participates in the programs and makes lifestyle changes.