Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure, or heart failure, is a long-term condition in which your heart can’t pump blood well enough to meet your body’s needs. Your heart is still working. But because it can’t handle the amount of blood it should, blood builds up in other parts of your body. Most of the time, it collects in your lungs, legs and feet.
Think of it like a shipping department that can’t keep up with getting all the shipments where they need to go. The shipping department is always running behind and things pile up. When things pile up, they cause issues.
Types of congestive heart failure
Types of congestive heart failure include:
- Left-sided heart failure.
- Right-sided heart failure.
- High-output heart failure. This is a rare type of congestive heart failure.
How common is congestive heart failure?
More than 4 million people in the India have congestive heart failure. It’s the leading cause of hospitalization in people older than 65.
Symptoms and Causes
What are the congestive heart failure symptoms?
Congestive heart failure symptoms include:
- Shortness of breath.
- Waking up short of breath at night.
- Chest pain.
- Heart palpitations.
- Fatigue when you’re active.
- Swelling in your ankles, legs and abdomen.
- Weight gain.
- Need to urinate while resting at night.
- A dry, hacking cough.
- A full (bloated) or hard stomach.
- Loss of appetite or upset stomach (nausea).
Sometimes, you may have mild symptoms of congestive heart failure or none at all. This doesn’t mean you don’t have heart failure anymore. Symptoms of heart failure can range from mild to severe and may come and go.
Unfortunately, congestive heart failure usually gets worse over time. As it worsens, you may have more or different signs or symptoms.
What are the risk factors for congestive heart failure?
Risk factors for congestive heart failure include:
- Being older than 65.
- Using tobacco products, cocaine or alcohol.
- Having an inactive (sedentary) lifestyle.
- Eating foods that have a lot of salt and fat.
- Having high blood pressure.
- Having coronary artery disease.
- Having a heart attack.
- Having a family history of congestive heart failure.