What is it, what causes it, how to avoid it, and what if you have it?

Congestive heart failure and heart failure aren’t precisely the same, but the terms are often used synonymously. To keep things simple, I’m going to refer to this condition as CHF.

What is CHF?

Heart failure is a long-term condition where your heart can’t pump blood well enough to meet your body’s needs all the time. This is especially true during times of exertion.

Here is a visual illustration of a congested heart:

Congestive heart failure illustrated by two hearts side by side. the left hand side is a normal heart, and the right is comgested.

Comparison of two hearts (frontal view), the one on the left is normal, and the one on the right is congested. The right ventricle is clearly congested, and the left ventricle’s inner wall is swollen. The effect of this is to lower the volume of the ventricles and reduce their ejection fractions. Left is your right, and right is your left.

So what’s an Ejection Fraction?

The ejection fraction measures the percentage of blood pumped from your heart when it contracts. Normal ejection fractions are 50 to 75 percent. This means that when your heart squeezes, it pushes 50 to 75 percent of the inside blood out and on its way to its destination.

There are two “pumps” in your heart. These are called ventricles – there is one on each side of your heart.

Your right ventricle pumps venous (used) blood into your lungs. Your lungs re-oxygenate your blood (among other things), and return it to your left ventricle.

The left ventricle pumps the revitalized blood to the rest of your body through your arteries.

But Congestive Heart Failure – CHF – hampers all this.

Shortness of breath (being winded) during moderate exertion (like walking at a normal pace) is a classic symptom of CHF. This can be caused by inadequate venous blood reaching your lungs or insufficient arterial blood supplying your lungs. It could also be both.

Of course, there are other symptoms, depending on the stage of CHF.

  1. General fatigue or weakness.
  2. Coughing a lot.
  3. Swelling in ankles and feet.
  4. Here’s more.

Causes of CHF.

  • Excess cholesterol and/or triglycerides in your blood.
  • Crappy junk food diet.
  • Sedentary lifestyle.
  • Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes.
  • Smoking or any tobacco use.
  • High blood pressure.
  • Overweight or Obese.
  • Stress.
  • Damage from a heart attack.

OK, So How Do You Avoid CHF?

First of all, If you have any or all of the symptoms given above, see your PHP as soon as possible. Early diagnosis and treatment are critical.

Second, as an OMY, ask your PHP for a referral to see a Cardiologist. This is important regardless of your current condition. Get a full workup to establish your current cardiac and atherosclerotic status. This will give your cardiologist a baseline of your condition.

Ask your cardiologist how often you should see her or him, and set your first follow-up appointment. These visit frequencies will depend on certain factors, including your baseline condition, sex, age, and possibly your race.

At this point, you have a cardiologist who knows your condition. In an emergency, you will be ahead of the situation with a doctor who knows you than one who’s on duty in the emergency room. Your odds of survival and minimizing damage are much better with your own cardiologist.

What Else Can You Do?

Well, let’s look at our causes list. Interestingly, all of these, except heart attack damage, are lifestyle and/or controllable issues.

Excess cholesterol and triglycerides: can be controlled with medications. Easy. (Your PHP might already be managing this.)

A crappy junk food diet: is correctable with study and maybe the help of a dietitian.

Sedentary lifestyle: how many times have you heard the admonition to get up and move? I say that if you don’t have an exercise program, here’s a simple one. If you have movement limits, see an expert for exercises you can do.

Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes: follow your PHP’s advice, diet, and use appropriate medications. Exercise helps a lot with these conditions.

Smoking or any tobacco use: do I really have to comment here – just stop, and if you can’t, seek help.

High blood pressure: Control your blood pressure. Get your baseline, and go from there – work with your PHP to get to low normal (if you can). High blood pressure damages many of your organs. Don’t allow this widespread damage to occur.

Overweight or Obese: ok, here we go. It’s difficult to describe the negative implications of excess weight. I know this is a sensitive subject, and there is an anti-fat-shaming movement. Still, the problem remains overweight and obese people are not healthy, and re-defining things will not change this. Here’s a realistic post I wrote on this subject.

Stress: Hans Selye, the famous endocrinologist, pioneered the role of stress in seemingly unrelated diseases. Stress management is now a major category and specialty in 2033 medicine. Learn the signs of stress, and talk about these with your PHP. Stress is a slow killer, do something about it if you have it.

Heart attack damage: here, you will need the guidance of your cardiologist. There are many options for getting back on track from a non-fatal heart attack. This will be challenging, however – trust the experts here.

So What if you already have CHF?

First, follow your cardiologist’s advice. There are many treatments for CHF and devices to aid with ejection fraction shortcomings and other challenges. Of course, your options and chances of living a longer life depend on the stage of the disease and other health deficiencies.

This is a complex question, but the article I linked in the above paragraph is well worth reading. Also, the strategy to deal with CHF is to contain it and stop its progression.

The best thing is to prevent it, to begin with, and stop it in its early stages. For most people with CHF, the outlook is getting brighter with technological advances.

OMY1

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