Heart Failure: Symptoms, Causes, and Types
Heart failure is a chronic ailment that develops when your heart cannot pump blood to nourish your body as it should adequately. Over time, fluids and blood build up in your legs and lungs. Treatments such as medication assist control symptoms including edema. For many people, congestive heart failure is fatal.
What is Heart Failure
When the heart is unable to pump blood to the body adequately, heart failure results. All of the body’s key processes are hampered by insufficient blood flow. An illness or group of symptoms known as heart failure makes your heart weak or stiff.
Some heart failure patients have trouble pumping enough blood to maintain the body’s other organs. In certain people, the heart muscle itself stiffens and hardens, which limits or prevents blood flow to the heart.
The right or left side of your heart may be affected, or both at once, by heart failure. Acute (short-term) or chronic (ongoing) conditions can both exist.
- The signs and symptoms of acute heart failure arise rapidly and disappear quite fast. This problem may develop following a heart attack. The cardiac valves that regulate the flow of blood in the heart may potentially be the cause of it.
- The signs and symptoms of chronic heart failure are persistent and don’t get better with time. Chronic heart failure is the most common kind.
Heart failure is a serious illness that has to be treated. Your chances of long-term recovery with fewer problems rise with early treatment. If you have any heart failure symptoms, don’t wait to call your doctor.
Causes of Heart Failure
The most frequent cause of heart failure is another illness. Coronary artery disease (CAD), a condition that results in the narrowing of the arteries supplying the heart with blood and oxygen, is the most frequent cause of heart failure. The following conditions may also make you more vulnerable to developing heart failure:
- Cardiomyopathy
- congenital heart disease
- heart attack
- heart valve disease
- certain forms of abnormal heartbeats, or arrhythmia
- high blood pressure
- emphysema, a disease of the lung
- untreated sleep apnea
- diabetes
- an overactive or underactive thyroid
- HIV
- severe forms of anemia
- specific cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy
- substance misuse disorder
Heart Failure Symptoms
The following symptoms for congestive heart failure symptoms are given below:
- fatigue
- sudden weight gain
- a loss of appetite
- persistent coughing
- irregular heart rate
- heart palpitations
- abdominal swelling
- shortness of breath
- exercise intolerance
- leg and ankle swelling or abdomen
- sleeping on extra pillows
- getting short of breath while lying down
- protruding neck veins
Types of Heart Failure
Both the left and right sides of your heart are susceptible to heart failure. Additionally, both of your heart’s chambers might stop beating simultaneously.
Diastolic or systolic heart failure is another classification.
Left-sided Heart Failure
The most typical kind of heart failure is left-sided. Your heart’s bottom left side is home to the left ventricle. This region circulates blood that is rich in oxygen throughout the body. Ineffective pumping of the left ventricle results in left-sided heart failure. Your body won’t receive enough blood that is rich in oxygen as a result. Instead, the blood backs up into your lungs, resulting in breathlessness and fluid accumulation.
Right-sided Heart Failure
Your heart’s right ventricle is in charge of pumping blood to your lungs so they can take in oxygen. When the right side of your heart is unable to function normally, it suffers from right-sided heart failure.
Heart failure on the left side is often what causes it. The right ventricle has to work harder because of the buildup of blood in the lungs brought on by left-sided heart failure. The right side of the heart may get overworked and fail due to this.
Other problems, including lung or valve disease, can also result in right-sided heart failure. Lower extremity or abdominal edema is a sign of right-sided heart failure. The fluid buildup in the legs, feet, and belly is what causes this edema.
Diastolic Heart Failure
When the heart muscle is stiffer than usual, diastolic heart failure happens. Your heart finds it difficult to quickly fill with blood because of the stiffness, which is typically brought on by heart disease. Diastolic dysfunction is what is meant by this. It causes the other organs in your body to get insufficient blood supply.
Females are more likely than males to get diastolic heart failure.
Systolic Heart Failure
When the heart muscle is unable to contract, systolic heart failure happens. To deliver oxygen-rich blood to the body, the heart must contract. Systolic dysfunction is the name for this issue, which often appears when your heart is weak and may be significant.
Males have systolic cardiac failure more frequently than females.
The left or right sides of the heart are both susceptible to diastolic and systolic heart failure. Either issue might affect both sides of your heart.
Treatment For Heart Failure
The sort of heart failure you have and, to some extent, what caused it will determine your course of therapy. Every heart failure treatment strategy includes both medication and lifestyle modifications. The ideal course of therapy for you will be discussed with you by your healthcare professional.
Your heart muscle pumps less blood to your organs as congestive heart failure worsens, and you progress to the subsequent stage of heart failure. Since you cannot advance through the stages of heart failure backward, the aim of treatment is to stop you from doing so or to stop the course of your heart failure.
One or more of the following therapies might be used to treat heart failure:
- A pacemaker
- Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)
- Transplant surgery
- Medication
- Heart bypass surgery
- Percutaneous coronary intervention
Best Oncologist in India
- Dr. D. K. Jhamb
- Dr. Ajay Kaul
- Dr. T. S. Kler
- Dr. Naresh Trehan
- Dr. Sanjay Gupta
- Dr. Praveen Kulkarni
- Dr. Y K Mishra
Top Hospitals for Heart Surgery in India
- Fortis Hospital Noida
- Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj
- Manipal Hospital Dwarka, Delhi
- Amrita Hospital, Faridabad
- Global Hospital Mumbai
- Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon
- Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Mumbai
Bottom Line
Heart failure is often a chronic ailment that needs constant care to avoid consequences. If heart failure is not treated, a life-threatening consequence may result from the heart’s extreme weakening. It’s critical to understand that anyone can experience heart failure. It’s crucial to practice lifelong prevention for the health of your heart. Always get in touch with your doctor if you suddenly have any new or strange symptoms that might point to a cardiac condition.
Your symptoms will probably worsen over time because heart failure is often a chronic illness. Surgery and medication can assist with symptom relief, but if you have severe heart failure, these therapies might not be effective. Heart failure can occasionally endanger life. Additionally, if you’re looking for affordable treatment contact us at Medsurge India as we provide affordable treatment packages like a heart bypass surgery cost in India for foreign patients who are looking for treatment in India.
