Heart failure does not necessarily mean that the heart fails to work. It rather means that the heart fails to pump adequate amount of blood to all the organs, which consequently results in lack of oxygen and blood tends to build up in the lungs and the heart.

Preventing heart failure involves a series of steps that can help in keeping the disease at bay. The measures entail dietary restrictions, body weight, exercise techniques, fluid intake and avoiding certain foods and other ingredients. Basically, if one can check the risk factors of congestive heart failure, the disease can be efficiently prevented.

Follow these steps:

4     Make necessary dietary changes: To prevent heart failure, you must first take care of what you eat and what you drink. The eating habits have a definite effect on the health of your heart. You must eat such foods that would help in reducing your body weight potentially. Also, you must limit your “salt” intake. Salt is otherwise sodium that can lead to water retention. However, that doesn’t mean you eat salt-less foods, but you must take very less salt in your diet. Avoid adding extra salt to your diet as well. Sodium causes fluid retention that can be harmful for the heart. Most of the sodium that we get is from the salt that we eat, however, there are other sources of sodium as well, like MSG or baking soda. Instead of eating sodium, have potassium enriched foods to replenish the loss of potassium due to diuretics. Sources of potassium include most of the fruits, green vegetables etc.

4     Monitor your body weight: Your body weight affects your heart. You must always try to control your body weight by monitoring it on a regular basis and taking all the necessary measures for the same. Eating right, exercising right and being fit can help in maintaining a balanced body weight. If you are just over 2 kgs of what your normal weight should be, you must seek help. Keep a track of your body weight every morning before breakfast and record it for reference.

4     Exercise: Very very important. Choose the safest exercise program for your health and seek help from a professional. Exercise regularly to allow the smooth functioning of your system. Swimming can be a great exercise for heart patients.

4     Check your fluid intake: Though it is advised to drink ample amount of water, but if you are on diuretics for clearing the fluid from the body, avoid taking plenty of fluids. Just stick to about 2 lts of any fluids, everyday.

4     Avoid alcohol and smoking: These are the worst enemies of your heart, so avoid them.

Make these steps part of your daily schedule and you’ll surely combat congestive heart failure.

When congestive heart failure is diagnosed, it literally means that the condition is much beyond nutritional prevention. The damage has been done by then. But still nutritional intervention can be of great help.

Earlier on, certain prescribed drugs were the only means of treating the condition, but with the passing time some advanced techniques have come up that can help in strengthening the heart and regulating the heartbeat. Vasodilators are given as the drugs that can help in opening up the blood vessels and can improve the cardiac output, thus relieving backed-up blood from the blood vessels all through the body, particularly in the lungs. Diuretic drugs are commonly used for treating edema or fluid build up.

It is also possible to treat congestive heart failure with the help of certain complementary treatment options:

Thiamin:

Thiamin deficiency is highly responsible for causing congestive heart failure. Thiamin is basically Vitamin B-1. Supplying ample amount of this vitamin to the body can prevent heart failure.

Vitamin E:

An antioxidant vitamin that acts as a potential defense against the damage caused by free radicals is the vitamin E. This vitamin, in its natural form, can be used for strengthening and regulating the heartbeats. Vitamin E should be taken in smaller doses initially, but with the doctor’s recommendation only.

Herbal Diuretics:

Herbal medicines can be used for reducing the swelling and inflammation caused due to the retained fluids.

Selenium

Selenium deficiency is also one of the leading causes of a type of congestive heart disease, which is known as Keshan disease. Additionally, selenium also aids the body in recharging as well as reusing the vitamin E efficiently.

Potassium

Potassium deficiency can lead to congestive heart failure and both the disease and the remedy are related to one another. Potassium is also associated with magnesium deficiency. Lower levels of potassium can lead to erratic heartbeat or heart arrhythmia. Potassium is contained in various things, such as fruits, green vegetables and juices. Nuts, legumes and whole grains are also rich sources of potassium. Brazil nuts are loaded with potassium.

Magnesium

Magnesium has a tremendous role to play in the normal functioning of our heart. Profound deficiency of magnesium can lead to muscle malfunction and might as well prevent the proper functioning of the same as well. This mineral has a pivotal role to play in maintaining the normal rhythm of the heart. Magnesium is essentially part of heart-care medications.

Co-Enzyme Q10:

It is one of the harmless and the most essential compounds for treating heart conditions. It has zero side effects. But the worst part is that it is quite expensive. But not more than a heart transplant.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

A very heart-friendly ingredient, found in foods, such as dietary fishes and can help in reducing the chances of irregular heart beats caused due to CHF. It also helps in controlling the blood pressure levels that can increase your chances of developing congestive heart failure.

4     Quit smoking: Smoking can cause damage to the blood vessels and might as well reduce the oxygen amount in the blood, thus making the heart beat even faster. If you are a smoker, you must ask the doctor to help you in quitting your smoking habits. Heart transplant cannot be an option for frequent smokers.

4     Limit sodium intake: Sodium is abundantly present in salt. Excessive sodium can lead to water retention that makes the heart work even harder, thus causing shortness of breath and swelling of the ankles, feet and legs. One should not take added salt in prepared foods as these foods already contain salts. People suffering from heart failure must not take excessive salt; the proposed amount of salt for such patients is 2000 milligrams.

4     Maintain Your Body Weight: You must maintain your ideal body weight that is in proportion with your height and built. A dietician can help you in taking care of this issue.

4     Restrict fluids and alcohol: Excessive alcohol consumption can affect your heart directly, thus weakening the heart muscles and increase the risk of abnormality in the heart rhythms, which might aggravate the existing heart condition. Alcohol might also have an interaction with the medications used for treating heart failure. In some critical cases, the doctor might even limit the overall consumption of fluid to prevent the condition from worsening.

4     Restrict cholesterol and fats: You must as well restrict your intake of fats in any form, be it saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol. A high-fat diet and a high-cholesterol diet can increase the risk of coronary artery disease, which is an underlying condition of congestive heart failure.

4     Exercise and be active: Earlier it was said that people suffering from heart disease should not exercise. However, things have changed over time and now people with heart problems are asked to exercise and be active for maintaining a healthy body. Moderate exercise can help in keeping the body in good health. But you must take proper medical advice from a doctor before you begin.

4     Reduce your stress: When we are anxious or worried about something, our heart beats even faster. This can worsen the conditions of heart failure, thus creating troubles for the heart to meet the demand of the body. Instead of feeling stressed about the condition, try to live every moment of your life and be happy. Take your medicines and all the necessary steps for good health.

4     Sleep Well: You must sleep well, to avoid any further complications. If you experience a shortness of breath, particularly during the night, your sleeping posture needs to be changed. Sleep with the head elevated at 45 degreed with the use of a pillow or wedge. If you have any sleeping problems like snoring, get yourself tested for sleep disorder or sleep apnea.

Congestive heart failure can be caused due to various underlying factors which can weaken the heart or cause potential damage. Some of these causes can even be present without our knowledge:

• High blood pressure or hypertension: Blood pressure is basically the force exerted for pumping blood by the heart through the arteries. If the blood pressure levels are high, the heart works even harder than it normally does for the proper circulation of blood throughout the body. Gradually, the muscles of the heart become thicker as they have to compensate for the added work pressure, thus enlarging our heart. Eventually this would lead to the stiffening of the heart, thus making it too weak to even pump blood effectively throughout the body.

• Coronary artery disease: Coronary artery disease is one of the common forms of heavy diseases and the most prevalent cause of congestive heart failure as well. Over time, the arteries that supply the heart muscles with the required amount of blood tend to become narrow due to the development of fatty deposits. This process is known as atherosclerosis. Blood flows very slowly through these narrowed arteries, thus making some areas of the heart muscles weaker and then depriving the same of oxygen-rich blood.  In most of the cases, the blood flow is just about enough for the survival of the muscles.

• Heart attack: Heart attack is caused due to the formation of plaque in the arteries by these fatty deposits that rupture the arteries. This leads to a blood clot that blocks the flow of blood, thus causing an attack.

• Faulty Valves: There are 4 valves in the heart that keeps blood flowing in proper directions. Any damage caused to any of these valves would force the heart to work even harder to allow the proper flow of blood. Overtime, this added burden weakens the heart, thus leading to failure.

• Cardiomyopathy: Any damage caused to the heart muscles, known as cardiomyopathy, can lead to congestive heart failure. This damage is caused due to various factors like infections, toxic effects of certain drugs and/or alcohol abuse. Additionally, some other diseases like lupus or problems with thyroid can also cause damage to the heart muscles.

• Myocarditis: This condition is characterized by the inflammation of our heart muscle. It is commonly caused by some virus that can even cause left-sided heart failure.

• Congenital heart defects: Some people have heart defects, such as deformed valves and other such conditions by birth and are known as congenital heart defects. These factors can also be responsible for heart congestive failure.

Apart from all these factors, chronic diseases like diabetes, hyperthyroidism, anemia, hypothyroidism, lupus, emphysema, amyloidosis and hemochromatosis can also be some of the contributing factors of congestive heart diseases.

Once the disease is diagnosed under the supervision of a well experienced professional, one has to make several alterations in his/her lifestyle to increase the comfort level and decrease the chances aggravating conditions. This might involve other aspects as well apart from just medications. Certain self-care techniques can be very useful as well.

In fact, experts believe that the more you play an active role in managing the condition of heart failure, the better are your chances of recovering faster.

Making certain lifestyle chances can be very helpful as well. These modifications not only aid in feeling better over time but might as well increase you lifespan.

Congestive heart failure is usually accompanied with swelling of the feet, legs and ankle. To treat these conditions, some measures can be taken at home, such as:

• Elevating the legs and the feet when there is a swelling.
• Eating low-salt or low-sodium diet.
• Taking the body weight every morning before having breakfast to maintain healthy balance. This needs to be recorded to be shown to the doctor as and when required.

Besides, there are certain things that must be avoided completely:

• Not taking your prescribed medicines regularly.
• Smoking cigarettes or cigar must be avoided completely.
• Drinking alcohol must be reduced significantly.
• Too much of emotional disturbances or stress.
• Depression; it can decrease your lifespan significantly.
• High altitude. Breathing becomes difficult due to the lack of oxygen in high altitudes.
• Complementary medications or herbal treatments without prior consultation with the doctor.

People suffering from congestive heart failure often complain about waking up in the middle of the night while lying flat, as it becomes difficult to breathe, thus causing sleep interruption. Improving sleep is very important and this would require certain changes in your sleeping posture. Sleeping in an elevated posture seems to be helpful in reducing the discomfort.

Additionally, there are certain things that one must do if one is suffering form congestive heart failure:

• Keeping track of the medicines: Keep track of all the medications that you have been recommended by the doctor. Take your medicines regularly and if you are seeing another doctor, you must present your previous prescriptions to give him a clear picture of your previous medications.
• Keeping a track of the body weight: If the body weight increases significantly, it would mean that fluid is being accumulated in the body. In such cases, the doctor would recommend some added diuretics if required.
• Keeping a track of the blood pressure levels: It is a must. If you are a serious patient, your blood pressure needs to be monitored almost everyday for betterment. An increase in the blood pressure level indicates serious problem. Keeping the blood pressure levels normal is extremely necessary.
• Jot down the questions: If you have any added questions on your mind regarding your condition, feel free to ask your doctor. Some personal questions or something that you cannot share with anyone else can also be asked.  The doctor would explain the necessary consequences.

Clarify: If you have any issues with the medications, drugs or procedures, clarify before you leave.

Making alternations in the diet plan is a challenging job initially when you star. But as the improvements in the symptoms would manifest eventually, one would know whether the effort was worth it or not.

A health diet doesn’t necessarily mean that you sacrifice variety and flavor. Rather it is about teaching you how to have healthy and well seasoned foods to satisfy your taste buds and help you in keeping a healthy system as well. A balanced diet with proper seasoning and sweet treats to please your appetite can all contribute to a healthy diet.

When we talk of a heart-healthy diet, it must include:

• Fruits and veggies
• High fiber foods and whole grains
• Poultry and lean meat
• Fish, to be taken twice every week
• Fat-free dairy products

A hear-friendly diet must be low in:

• Salt and sodium based products or sodium in any form.
• Saturated fat. Cholesterol and trans fat

Since you know about the healthy food groups now, you must also be aware of the best foods included in the food groups for your health. Usually, low-sodium foods would be recommended to people suffering form heart failure and other problems related to the heart. Have a look at the next most heart-friendly foods falling into these categories:

• Fruits: Any fruits usually fresh, frozen or canned.
• Vegetables: Fresh or may be frozen, but not flavored ones. Canned vegetables should be fine if they are unsalted.
• Meats, poultry and fish: Fresh is a preferred choice, but frozen should be fine. Fresh or else fresh fish can be taken, but not the breaded ones. Canned salmon and tuna thoroughly rinsed and unsalted. Turkey or chicken after removing the skin. Lean cuts of veal, lamb, beef or pork.
• Substitutes of meat: Peas, dried beans, uncanned lentils, tofu, seeds or nuts in unsalted form, preferably dry-roasted like peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds. Unsalted peanut butter. Nuts must not be consumed in abundance as they contain high calories and fats.
• Fluids/Drinks: Fresh fruit juices, canned tomato or vegetable juice with no salt, lemonade; either fresh or frozen, coffee and tea in moderation, soy milk, soy protein powder.
• Dairy Products: Non-fat liquid or dry milk, low sodium dry curd, cottage cheese, low-fat cheese.
• Oils and fats: Unsaturated vegetable oils, such as canola, corn, olive oil, cottonseed, peanut, soybean, safflower and sunflower, low-fat, low-sodium dressing for salads, unsalted margarine.
• Cereals, Breads, Starches, and Grains: Pasta, brown or white rice, starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn, green peas etc, loaf bread or yeast rolls, homemade breads, pita bread, corn tortilla, cooked cereals like corn grits, oatmeal, oat bran, puffed rice, shredded wheat, wheat germ, and unsalted popcorn.
• Sweets: Not to forget!! Flavored gelatins, fruits, fruit ice, sorbet, frozen juice bars, jam, jelly, apple butter, honey, molasses.

There are many causes of severe coronary atherosclerosis, among which the ischemic myocardium that is frequently scarred by previous myocardial infarctions, acute and chronic valvular heart disease and some other cardionmyotahties are usually prominent.

The prognosis of congestive heart failure patients is very poor usually, and in majority of the cases, patients with severe conditions and symptoms have expired within a year. In some of the less severe cases of heart failure, 50% people die in about 3-4 years time.

The most important factor that determines prognosis of congestive heart failure is the function of the left ventricle, which is reflected in the individual’s left ventricular ejection fraction of the blood that is literally pumped out with every heart beat.

Other relevant factors that show promising prognostic value include the functional classification – electrolyte abnormalities like the lower levels of sodium in blood; increased level of plasma catachlamines; poor stress tolerance; the prominence of a trial fibrillation and also coronary artery diseases, such as etiology of heart failure.

Most of the patients suffering from heart failure, approximately 30% to 40% of the cases, die all of a sudden, due to ventricular arrhythmias. Furthermore, elevated heart failure is often associated with escalated incidence of the ventricular arrhythmias, which is likely to be decreased due to aggressive and successful heart failure therapy or by some preventive measure to be taken for lowering magnesium or potassium in our blood.

Once the patients are having symptoms of congestive heart failure, they also start suffering from moderate to severe symptoms of ventricular systolic dysfunction, which leads to an increase in the mortality rate at an average of 10% every year. Studies have revealed that the ACE inhibitor administration with enalapril or caotopril has been associated with reduced morbid events, which indicate an apparent slow down of the left ventricular dysfunction progression. This is a potential trend towards reduced mortality rate.

Incase of the elderly, vasodilator therapy for mild heart failure can be an appropriate option. The fall in the mortality rate with the use of vasodilator therapy accounts for subgroup of patients suffering from congestive heart failure in patients above 65 years.

Two beta-blockers—metropolol and bisoprolol, used for treating the condition have been proved to have significant benefits on the mortality rate and death caused by progressive heart failure. When these medications are combined with standard therapy using angiotensin-converting enzyme or ACE inhibitors and diuretics, the rate of mortality can be significantly reduced.

Congestive failure is a common condition with the elderly as the risk of developing this condition increases with age.

However, congestive heart failure doesn’t really mean that your heart stops functioning completely. It is rather a prolonged condition that can be checked with the help of medicines and some lifestyle changes. The condition can be controlled before it is too late.

The Symptoms

The common symptoms of congestive heart failure does not manifest during the initial stages. And even if they do, it would be difficult to identify the disease since the symptoms are quite common, such as:

• Tremendous fatigue,
• Breathlessness, especially when a person is doing some activities like climbing stairs or exercising,
• Rapid weight gain due to sudden accumulation of fluids in the ankles, legs and feet,
• Fluid build up in the lungs and the abdomen,
• Chest pain,
• Choking sensation during the night,
• Difficulty in lying down flat,
• Persistent cough with blood and mucus.

Congestive heart failure increases the risk of a heart attack in individuals. It might as well lead to some other critical problems like stroke, muscle-wasting, lung problems and DVT. Eventually, the condition might as well decrease mobility, thus making the patients weak and lonely.

The Causes

In most if the cases, the exact cause of congestive heart failure remains unknown. However, there are some suggested contributing factors, including:

• Heart inflammation and/or infection (cardiomyopathy),
• Coronary heart diseases,
• Diseases or infected heart valves,
• high cholesterol numbers,
• elevated blood pressure levels,
• alcoholism,
• angina,
• hyperthyroidism,
• smoking,
• obesity,
• renal failure, and
• Diabetes.

However, the main contributing factor that prevails is age.

Diagnosis

Several tests are to be conducted for identifying congestive heart failure:

• exercise or stress testing, to observe the performance of the heat under pressure or stress,
• ECG or electrocardiograph,
• Echocardiograph, which is an ultrasound scan done of the muscles and the valves of the heart,
• Chest X-ray,
• MRI, which is an imaging technique, and
• Coronary angiography, in which a dye like substance is injected into our bloodstream to have a clear view of the arteries ruing X-ray.

Treatment

Various medications can be given for treating congestive heart failure, though the condition isn’t really curable. However, it can be managed with some medications and some lifestyle alterations as well.

There are numerous drugs that have been identified as the best to minimize the symptoms of congestive heart failure, including:

• ACE or Angiotensin Converting Enzyme inhibitors
• Angiotensin II receptor antagonists
• Vasodilators
• Diuretics or water tablets
• Intravenous medications
• Beta blockers
• Cardiac glycosides
• Cholesterol controlling medications

In some critical cases, where medications fail to produce results, surgeries might be required. Bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty or heart transplant might become inevitable.

Researchers are still on their way to find out new and innovative techniques for treating congestive heart failure. Some treatment options are also being studied till now and are being used in some cases.

• Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators or ICDs: An ICD is a medical device that is implanted under the patient’s skin and then attached with small wires, to the heart. The ICD assists in monitoring the rhythm of the heart. If the heart beats at an abnormal rhythm, the ICD can shock it back to the normal rhythm. In some cases, a biventricular pacemaker can as well be combined with the ICD for patients suffering from severe congestive heart failure.
• Cardiac resynchronization therapy or CRT or biventricular pacing: Biventricular pacemaker is used for sending timed electrical impulses to the lower chambers of the heart, the left and the right ventricles, so as to enable them to pump blood all over in synchrony and in an efficient and coordinated manner. More than half of the complications related to the heart are caused due to abnormalities in the electrical system of the heart that causes the weakened heart muscles to beat rather in an uncoordinated manner. Such an inefficient contraction of the heart muscles further wastes the limited energy of the heart that might lead to the worsening of the heart conditions. In some rare cases however, biventricular pacemaker is used in conjunction with ICD for people at an increased risk of heat rhythm problems.
• Heart pumps: These are mechanical devices, also known as left ventricular assist devices or LVADs and are implanted right into the patient’s abdomen and are attached to the weakened heart, thus assisting it to pump efficiently. Initially, heart pumps were used by doctors for keeping the patients of heart transplants alive till the time a donor was found. LVADs are recently being considered as the most suited alternative to heart transplantation. Implanted heart pumps are significantly helpful in extending as well as improving the life of patients suffering from end-stage congestive heart failure and are not eligible for heart transplant or are just waiting for a heart.

Some people tend to suffer form severe congestive heart failure and medications or surgery just don’t work in improving their condition. They might as well need a heart transplantation through which their diseased heart could be replaced with another healthy heart from a healthy donor. Heart transplant surgeries have dramatically improved over time and the survival rate as well as the quality of life is believed to be extremely satisfying. However, some of the patients for transplantation might have to wait for a considerable period of time before a suitable heart is found. Some candidates for transplants might even show improvements during the waiting period through the drugs and medications used.

Until very recently, people as well as doctors often overlooked or sometimes downplayed the early signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure because the symptoms were usually common in nature, which could just be associated with age related factors. But these symptoms proved to be the warning signs of congestive heart failure later on after thorough diagnosis. If you can learn about the warning signs, you can as well make it a point to convince your doctor about the facts of the symptoms.

Understand the Condition

Congestive heart failure is usually caused when the heart muscles are damaged due to heart attack or prolonged hypertension or some other chronic vulvular disease that impairs the capability of the heart to pump blood properly throughout the body. This causes the cells of the body to get very little oxygen, thus causing “fatigue”.

Fluids back up into the lungs, which causes shortness of breath, cough and congestion. This is the reason why the condition is known as congestive heart failure.

Fluids also back up in the veins, which leads to swollen ankles.

The condition is likely to aggravate over time, until the heart actually fails to supply enough blood to the body for sustaining life.

Systolic heart failure, which is the most common form, occurs when our heart fails to contract forcefully to eject the blood in the primary pumping chamber.

But in about 40% of the case of congestive heart failure, this inadequate circulation of blood stems from the diastolic heart failure, which in turn prevents the chambers from filling up with enough blood before contracting due to stiffening of the heart muscles.

Knowing the warning signs

Echocardiograph heart ultrasound can easily reveal the preliminary stages of congestive heart failure. But as these are pretty expensive procedures, experts usually recommend these tests to people having prolonged heart illness or the ones who are at a risk of developing the disease, especially:

• People who have has heart attack in the past.
• People having a heart murmur.
• People having elevated levels of blood pressure for a considerable period of time.
• People taking drugs for cancer that can be harmful for the heart muscles.

In some cases, people showing some of these signs and symptoms, usually explained by other relevant causes can also be alarming, such as:

• Exertion or shortness of breath
• Fatigue
• Wheezing
• Frequent cough
• Unexplained and rapid weight gain
• Swollen ankles
• Bulging veins of the neck

If any of these signs and symptoms is noticed, the doctor would immediately recommend the necessary diagnosis for better evaluation. Once evaluated, the disease can be treated with medications. Though it is difficult to promise 100% relief, but most of the times, the condition can be controlled. In some rare cases however, surgery becomes essential for treating the condition completely.