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| | Title: | Heart Failure | | Article: | How to avoid heart failure?
Aleksandr Kavokin MD, PhD
Just the name "heart failure" sounds terrible. Doesn't it? Your main pump goes down. Really scary. If
you hear it form you doctor, it's not good. However if you watch yourself carefully you may prevent
heart failure. In the least you can really slow down the process.
What is heart failure. The term means exactly this: your heart does not work well. Usually the
symptoms develop slowly over the many years. Though sometime the condition may happen suddenly.
You may start to pay closer attention to your health if you:
* Had heart defects since you were born
* Had problems with blood supply to the heart due to narrowing of blood vessels (usually it happens
because of atherosclerosis). Atherosclerosis is a condition where there are plaques on blood vessels.
The plaques may contain cholesterol, calcium, some special cells and other material. Whole spectrum of
diseases has a name of Coronary Artery Disease. Cutting of blood supply causes damage of the heart.
* Had a damage to heart form using some medications, drugs or abusing alcohol
* Had a damage to the heart valves from Rheumatism, Endocarditis or other heat diseases
* Had high blood pressure damaging your heart.
What happens when you have the heart failure?
Your heart becomes big and weak, or the valves of your heart start to leak. Or Both.
That leads to all kinds of troubles.
Main thing is the decrease of blood and oxygen supply to all of your organs. Weak pump can not pump
well. Everything leaks backward. Also, because everything leaks back, the blood and fluid overall
tends to stay in tissues and organs.
The fluid accumulates in lungs and cause your wheezing. You have coughing and difficulties breathing,
especially when lying flat.
The fluid also stays in lower part of your body. You ankles, feet, abdomen, liver swell. The conduction
of electric impulses in a big, stretched heart becomes disrupted. That causes irregular and rapid heart
beats. Luck of blood and oxygen in the upper part of body causes bluish color of lips, fingers and face.
The brain deprived of oxygen makes you feel tired, decreases concentration and attention, causes
troubles with sleeping.
To treat heart failure is difficult.
As with majority diseases it is easier to prevent the condition.
To avoid heart failure or at lest to slow down the progression you should:
* Follow recommendations of your doctor and use heart and blood pressure medication responsibly
* Follow healthy diet
* Decrease salt consumption
* Watch your weight and cholesterol consumption
* Avoid stress in your life
* Avoid alcohol
* Avoid tobacco
* Avoiding tobacco, decreasing fat in your food, exercising would help to prevent one of the main
reason of heart failure - Coronary Artery Disease. However if you already have heart failure, consult
your doctor about exercises, because later stages of heart failure require special treatment.
For treating heart failure your doctor may prescribe certain medications, that increase function of your
heart, change heart rate. Management of those medications is a sort of art (though obviously strict
recommendations exist).
In the worst cases you may need surgery - valve repair. Very late stages may need heart transplant.
In any case to prevent is easier than to treat.
| | Author: | Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD | | System: | Heart | | Subject: | Failure | | Abstract: | To treat heart failure is difficult.
As with majority diseases it is easier to prevent the condition. | | Website: | http://www.kavokin.com | | Time: | 13:08 | | Reference: | http://www.rdoctor.com | | Reference 2: | http://www.symptomat.com |
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©2006 Kavokin.com
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