What are the sign and symptoms of Heart Failure?

Heart is one of the vital organs in humans. The heart itself never stops pumping blood in the body throughout the super long blood vessels that are 100 000 kilometres in length. Throughout our lifetime, the heart never gives up to keep us going. Hence, you should be taking care of your heart health seriously so that your heart can be functional at its best throughout your life. However, living in this modern world has made heart diseases such as congestive heart failure more common than how it was in the past.

One of the many heart diseases that is common in society is heart failure. Heart failure is a condition of the impaired heart or heart structures that makes the heart unable to pump blood as demanded by the body. It is estimated that there are 63.4 million cases of heart failure in the world. Heart failure is so much more than just a heart that is unable to work properly. It is the reason behind disability and even death. The risk for heart failure in male doubles with each 10 year-age increase after the age of 65 whereas in women it is tripled.

Risk factors are something that increases the chance for developing a disease. This means that the risk for a person to have heart failure increases when a person has one or more risk factors. Risk factors for heart failure include older age, family history of heart failure, unhealthy lifestyle habits such as bad eating habits, smoking, heavy alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle of not engaging in physical activities or drug abuse and other forms of heart diseases, lung diseases or infections.

HF is caused by many causes but the most common and main cause is usually due to coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD is a disease caused by the plaque build-up made of cholesterol deposits in the wall of the arteries that affect the blood supply to the heart. Other causes of HF include cardiomyopathy, inflammation of the heart muscle such as endocarditis, congenital heart defects, abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) and heart valve diseases. Conditions that overwork the heart such as those with high blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes, obesity and bad lifestyles such as alcohol, drugs and emotional distress.

Before knowing signs and symptoms of heart failure, it would be better to know what really happens during a heart failure. The heart chambers initially respond to blood flow by stretching to hold more blood or become thickened. Temporarily, this does help to keep the blood flow smoothly but as time goes by, it leads to the heart muscle weakening and ultimately unable to pump efficiently. Kidney will then respond to this condition by retaining the fluid and salt. This then led to fluid build-up in the many organs, commonly visible in legs, feet and lungs, to become congested.

Thus, symptoms depend on which side of the heart is affected. For example, when the right side of the heart is affected, it typically leads to symptoms of swelling of the lower legs or abdomen and even liver due to buildup fluid in the lower body. In contrast, left heart failure often leads to breathing difficulty as there is congestion in the lung. Although heart failure often affects one side of the heart, it is possible for both hearts to be affected. Left heart failure is more common than right heart failure. Common symptoms include fatigue even after taking rest, difficulty to sleep while lying flat, nausea and persistent coughing. Some may pass urine more than usual and some may have chest pain when it is caused by heart attack. Kidney problems may also occur. Malnutrition is also possible. Since heart failure symptoms and signs typically cause great discomfort, anyone with any of the symptoms should get medical advice immediately.

Another way of differentiating heart failure is by knowing which type affects a person. There are two types of heart failure. The first one is systolic heart failure that occurs when the heart muscle is not able to contract with enough force to pump blood in the blood circulation system. The second one is diastolic heart failure that occurs when the heart contracts normally but the ventricles of the heart are not properly relaxed or have become stiff. This makes less blood able to enter the heart during the normal blood filling phase in between heartbeats. To determine if heart failure is systolic or diastolic dysfunction. Echocardiogram test will be done to evaluate the heart pump function.

It can be concluded that heart failure can cause significant health problems as it may cause high chances of death when it is not treated properly. Knowing the risk factor can help a person to get early treatment and reduce the risk for heart failure. The best management is through cardiac rehabilitation programs.