Congestive heart failure - An Overview
When the doctor makes the pronouncement that your diagnosis is congestive heart failure is a scary moment. While congestive heart failure sounds like the heart has completely stopped pumping, that's certainly not the case. It's actually a condition in which the heart isn't strong enough to pump an adequate amount of blood throughout the body. As a result, the body's organs are lacking not only essential nutrients, but also vital oxygen.
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If you have congestive heart failure you can't exert yourself very strenuously without becoming overly tired and short of breath. As the blood flows out of the heart, it slows down. This, in turn, causes the returning blood to the heart to "back up" in the veins, which produces congestion in the tissues.
The visible result on your body: swelling. It appears most commonly in the legs and ankles, but it definitely isn't limited to those body parts. Swelling because of congestive heart failure can occur anywhere throughout your system.
Another serious side effect of this heart condition is that fluid at times collects in the lungs. This causes problems in breathing. That's why many people suffering with congestive heart failure have problems breathing. It's especially difficult to breathe when they're lying down. Heart failure adversely affects the kidneys' ability to excrete sodium and water as well. This is another reason why swelling is so evident with this problem.
There could be any number of causes for this problem. In some people it's caused by coronary artery disease, in others it's caused by the healing process of a past heart attack. As the heart heals, scar tissue naturally forms. This scar tissue interferes with the heart muscle's normal functioning. High blood pressure may prompt congestive heart failure as may heart valve disease.
Conventional medicine has several drugs that treat congestive heart failure. They include ACE inhibitors and vasodilators. Both of these expand the blood vessels to help the blood flow through the narrowed openings faster as well as decrease the resistance of the flow. This helps the heart to work easier and more efficiently.
Another prescription medication that's used is a beta blocker. This drug improves the pumping action of the lower left chamber of the heart. Digitalis also increases heart's ability to pump stronger. Sometimes diuretics are also prescribed. This helps the body to get rid of the excess salt and water it's been retaining.
If at all possible, physicians try to treat the root cause of the heart failure. If, for example, the cause is high blood pressure, the symptoms of congestive heart failure should be lessened if the blood pressure were lowered.
