Heart failure 101

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By Rachel Martin

Find what you need to know about heart failure symptoms, risk factors, treatment, and prevention.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 5 million people are living with heart failure. While there is no cure, there are steps you can take to significantly improve your quality of life. The same actions can help anyone prevent the onset heart failure.

Heart failure: A condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s demands.

Congestive heart failure: A condition in which the heart cannot pump all the blood it receives, causing blood to “back up” (congest) in the lungs and other parts of the body. Congestive heart failure occurs as heart failure worsens.

There are several types of heart failure:

• Stiff heart: If the heart is too inflexible to pump properly it can lead to heart failure.

• Weak heart: In a condition called systolic heart failure, the heart is too weak to push blood throughout the entire body.

• Thick heart muscle: In a condition called diastolic heart failure, the heart muscle is too thick to allow for normal heart relaxation, causing the heart to fill with blood.

What Causes Heart Failure?
Most often, heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition, with symptoms growing worse over time. Sometimes, heart failure can be sudden, in reaction to a heart attack, allergy, infection, drug overdose, injury, or blood clot.

Chronic causes of heart failure include:

• Coronary artery disease
• High blood pressure
• Diseases of the heart valves
• Cardiomyopathy (disease of heart muscle)
• Myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscle)
• Congenital heart disease or defects
• Lung disease
• Diabetes
• Severe anemia
• Hyperthyroidism
• Abnormal heartbeat
• HIV/AIDS
• Cancer treatment, such as radiation and certain kinds of chemotherapy drugs