A Syndrome of Several Underlying
Diseases or Condition
Why does congestive heart failure happen?
Hypertension may be one cause of congestive heart failure (CHF). It is a prolonged condition of hypertension that makes the left ventricle muscles thicken, since it needs extra power to pump blood into the circulation with increased blood tension. But before we go further, let’s take a look into our wonderful heart.
The Heart function
Our heart is the most vital organ in our body. Death or alive depends on our heart. We are confirmed death when our heart stops beating which is known as ‘clinical death’. Its vital role is to pump blood into the circulatory system (outflow) and at the same time receives blood from our body and lungs (inflow).
The heart has 4 chambers. The left side of the heart has 2 cavities which are the left atrium and the left ventricle, as well as the right side which has the same design, the right atrium and right ventricle. The atrium receives blood hence its wall is much thinner compared to the ventricle. The ventricle is the ‘muscle’ of the heart, since it has to perform an enduring job, creating heart beats!
The heart serves two circulatory systems, the cardiovascular system and the cardiopulmonary system
The cardiovascular system is blood circulation from the left ventricle of the heart to the entire body and back to the right atrium of the heart. It circulates ‘fresh’ oxygenated blood to the entire body systems to make all body parts and systems functioning. By each and every cell of the body the oxygen (O2) is depleted and carbon dioxide (CO2) is loaded to blood cells and brought to the right atrium of the heart.
The cardiopulmonary system is blood flow from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs and back to the left atrium of the heart. The de-oxygenized blood from the body received by the right atrium is then pumped by the right ventricle to our lungs. In the lung’s smallest device, the alveolus, carbon dioxide is released by the blood and fresh oxygen is absorbed by blood cells to be brought to the left atrium.
Another part of the heart that play important roles are the heart valves. Two valves are the partition between the atria and ventricles, called by the atria-ventricular valves, and the other two are the aorta-ventricular, between the left ventricular and the aorta, and the pulmonary-ventricular valve, between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery. These valves contribute to heart pumping effectiveness by keeping blood flow towards the right direction. Any leakage of the valve may cause ineffectiveness and makes the heart work harder.
Any impairment that affects our heart will cause function abnormalities, in the short or long run, to other organs and systems. So, loving your heart is a must.
Assuming your normal heart beats 60 times per minute and you are 50 years old, this means that your heart has made at least; 60 X 60 minutes X 24 hours X 365 days X 50 years = 1,578,800,000 beats during your entire life!. Wow, what an excellent work. Can you do this kind of enduring job? I really don’t think so. Thus, appreciate your heart, one way is by providing it with routine checks and do not do anything that may endanger the health of your heart.
What is Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)?
CHF is not a disease, but it is a syndrome or a set of symptoms or disorders which is a result of several underlying diseases or conditions. CHF happens due to the gradual weakening of the myocardium or the heart muscle. Consequently, blood circulation is hampered and creates a degree of congestion or blockage. The increased tension in the blood vessels due to the slow down of circulation causes fluid infiltration into the body tissues. This is indicated by the puffy swelling of hands and feet which is called by edema. The edema in CHF is typical, and called by pitting edema where an imprint or concave mark may show after pressing the swollen part with your finger.
If the infiltrated fluid accumulates in the stomach it is called ascites, which is indicated by a remarkable bloated stomach
The blockage may create a backward effect to blood inflow from the lungs. This causes lung edema, or fluid infiltration into the lungs. This is indicated by feeling short of breath after normal activities or just lying down.
Types of CHF
There are two types of CHF, Systolic Heart Failure and Diastolic Heart Failure.
Systolic Heart Failure
Diastolic Heart Failure
As it is a syndrome, CHF may result from many diseases and conditions as follows:
Heart attack
Heart attack is a result of heart muscle damage or myocard infarct due to insufficient blood supply to the myocardium or heart muscle. The longer the insufficiency, the wider the damage of the muscle is affected. One that survives from a heart attack are at higher risk to suffer CHF in the future
Pericardial disease
These are diseases that affect the pericardium or the outer layer of the heart. This might be a pericardial effusion or accumulation of fluid between the pericardium and myocardium. Another disease is the thickening of the pericardium itself. Both cause the inflexibility of the heart movement to fill properly.
Hypertension
This disease is really a burden to the heart, since the heart needs to work harder to pump the adequate amount of blood into the blood vessels with high tension. Prolonged hypertension may cause the thickening of the left ventricle muscle or called as left ventricular hypertrophy which later on will damage heart muscles as well as the lining of blood vessels.
Congenital heart disease
Diseases of the heart that arise from heart defects those are present at birth. The common disease is caused by damaged heart valves. As it function is to keep the right direction of blood flow, abnormal valves may cause backward flow or a decreased outflow. There are two types of valve damage; an incompetent valve that does not close properly and the stenotic valve that does not open properly. Both types of valves make the heart work harder and inefficient.
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy or heart muscle damage which can be the result of many disorders e.g. coronary heart disease, prolonged high blood pressure, viral infection, diabetes, and some other causes. If the damage of heart muscles happens due to an unknown reason it is called idiopathic cardiomyopathy.
Obesity
Additional body weight is a burden to our heart and may impair the entire cardiovascular system resulting high blood pressure and heart disease, including coronary heart disease and CHF
Smoking and alcoholism
These are two risk factors in acquiring cardiovascular diseases. While smoking is a bad habit, which can ruin your health, to be more specific; harm your heart and lungs, alcoholism can impair the function of the liver and sooner or later may impair your heart as well.
Other causes
Some to mention are: prolonged arrhythmia (irregular heart beats), hyper or hypothyroid (excess or less of thyroid hormone), toxic exposures and chemotherapy (cancer medicines)
Symptoms of CHF
Most of cases do not aware that they have CHF, since symptoms do not show until the heart is already in a serious problem. The most common symptoms are:
One of the early symptoms is short of breath accompanied with cough or disability to take a deep breath. Patient with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema may mislead the symptoms for having an attack of those diseases. Patients without breathing problems may mislead the CHF symptom for a cold, flu or bronchitis.
However, the worsen condition of the disease may show 3 prominent symptoms:
Shortness of breath
This symptom persists from the early stage of CHF as mentioned above, but it becomes more severe along with the progress of the disease. Fluid accumulation in the lungs decreases pulmonary function to acquire enough oxygen. The suffering becomes prominent since the patient has difficulties in breathing (dyspnea) when at a lying position. The patients may often be awaken at night due to dyspnea, and try to comfort themselves at a sitting position. This symptom is called by paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. Sleeping while at a sitting position supported by several pillows is the most comfort for patients with CHF.
Exercise intolerance
Patient with CHF has a very limited ability to perform even the slightest activity as done by a normal person. The patient may get into short of breath and fatigue when doing normal home activities like cleaning, polishing, sweeping or even a short walk outside the house. Resting for awhile will be comfortable and makes the patient feel better.
Fluid retention
A prominent sign is the swelling of the arms and legs, including the ankles called by edema. A typical sign is the pitting edema, a concave mark which remains on the skin for a while after pushed with a finger. Fluid retention in the lungs contributes to the two other symptoms that lead to dyspnea and exercise intolerance. In severe cases, fluid accumulation may occur in the abdomen or stomach which is called by ascites. A bloated belly is a clear sign of possible ascites caused by CHF
Hypertension may be one cause of congestive heart failure (CHF). It is a prolonged condition of hypertension that makes the left ventricle muscles thicken, since it needs extra power to pump blood into the circulation with increased blood tension. But before we go further, let’s take a look into our wonderful heart.
The Heart function
Our heart is the most vital organ in our body. Death or alive depends on our heart. We are confirmed death when our heart stops beating which is known as ‘clinical death’. Its vital role is to pump blood into the circulatory system (outflow) and at the same time receives blood from our body and lungs (inflow).
The heart has 4 chambers. The left side of the heart has 2 cavities which are the left atrium and the left ventricle, as well as the right side which has the same design, the right atrium and right ventricle. The atrium receives blood hence its wall is much thinner compared to the ventricle. The ventricle is the ‘muscle’ of the heart, since it has to perform an enduring job, creating heart beats!
The heart serves two circulatory systems, the cardiovascular system and the cardiopulmonary system
The cardiovascular system is blood circulation from the left ventricle of the heart to the entire body and back to the right atrium of the heart. It circulates ‘fresh’ oxygenated blood to the entire body systems to make all body parts and systems functioning. By each and every cell of the body the oxygen (O2) is depleted and carbon dioxide (CO2) is loaded to blood cells and brought to the right atrium of the heart.
The cardiopulmonary system is blood flow from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs and back to the left atrium of the heart. The de-oxygenized blood from the body received by the right atrium is then pumped by the right ventricle to our lungs. In the lung’s smallest device, the alveolus, carbon dioxide is released by the blood and fresh oxygen is absorbed by blood cells to be brought to the left atrium.
Another part of the heart that play important roles are the heart valves. Two valves are the partition between the atria and ventricles, called by the atria-ventricular valves, and the other two are the aorta-ventricular, between the left ventricular and the aorta, and the pulmonary-ventricular valve, between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery. These valves contribute to heart pumping effectiveness by keeping blood flow towards the right direction. Any leakage of the valve may cause ineffectiveness and makes the heart work harder.
Any impairment that affects our heart will cause function abnormalities, in the short or long run, to other organs and systems. So, loving your heart is a must.
The Heart wonder
Assuming your normal heart beats 60 times per minute and you are 50 years old, this means that your heart has made at least; 60 X 60 minutes X 24 hours X 365 days X 50 years = 1,578,800,000 beats during your entire life!. Wow, what an excellent work. Can you do this kind of enduring job? I really don’t think so. Thus, appreciate your heart, one way is by providing it with routine checks and do not do anything that may endanger the health of your heart.
What is Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)?
CHF is not a disease, but it is a syndrome or a set of symptoms or disorders which is a result of several underlying diseases or conditions. CHF happens due to the gradual weakening of the myocardium or the heart muscle. Consequently, blood circulation is hampered and creates a degree of congestion or blockage. The increased tension in the blood vessels due to the slow down of circulation causes fluid infiltration into the body tissues. This is indicated by the puffy swelling of hands and feet which is called by edema. The edema in CHF is typical, and called by pitting edema where an imprint or concave mark may show after pressing the swollen part with your finger.
If the infiltrated fluid accumulates in the stomach it is called ascites, which is indicated by a remarkable bloated stomach
The blockage may create a backward effect to blood inflow from the lungs. This causes lung edema, or fluid infiltration into the lungs. This is indicated by feeling short of breath after normal activities or just lying down.
Types of CHF
There are two types of CHF, Systolic Heart Failure and Diastolic Heart Failure.
Systolic Heart Failure
The heart, in some degree, fails to pump adequate amount of blood
into the circulation. To measure the severity of CHF, the pumping power or
ejection power can be measured by determining its Ejection Fraction
(EF). EF is a calculation of how much blood is pumped out of the left
ventricle (stroke volume), divided by the maximum volume that stays in the left
ventricle at the end of diastole or relaxation phase. A normal EF should be
greater than 50%. In systolic heart failure the EF is decreased to less
than 50%.
Diastolic Heart Failure
Although the heart may contract normally, but it’s rigid or less
flexible during relaxation and filling activities of blood. This may hamper
blood filling into the heart and creates backflow into the lungs and the entire
body. Diastolic heart failure is more common in patients older than 75 years,
especially in women with high blood pressure. In diastolic heart
failure, the EF is normal.
Statistics
- CHF affects 1% of people aged 50 years, about 5% of those aged 75 years or older, and 25% of those aged 85 years or older. Heart failure is the most common reason for patients to be hospitalized.
- As the number of elderly people continues to rise, the number of people diagnosed with this condition will continue to increase.
- In the United States, about 5 million people have heart failure and about 550,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.
- CHF is more common among African Americans than whites.
- The rate of death from CHF is about 10% after 1 year. About half of those with CHF diewithin 5 years after their diagnosis. These statistics vary widely by a patient’s exact diagnosis and therapy.
- Advances in research are providing more options and improving outcomes for people with CHF.
Cause of CHF
As it is a syndrome, CHF may result from many diseases and conditions as follows:
Heart attack
Heart attack is a result of heart muscle damage or myocard infarct due to insufficient blood supply to the myocardium or heart muscle. The longer the insufficiency, the wider the damage of the muscle is affected. One that survives from a heart attack are at higher risk to suffer CHF in the future
Pericardial disease
These are diseases that affect the pericardium or the outer layer of the heart. This might be a pericardial effusion or accumulation of fluid between the pericardium and myocardium. Another disease is the thickening of the pericardium itself. Both cause the inflexibility of the heart movement to fill properly.
Hypertension
This disease is really a burden to the heart, since the heart needs to work harder to pump the adequate amount of blood into the blood vessels with high tension. Prolonged hypertension may cause the thickening of the left ventricle muscle or called as left ventricular hypertrophy which later on will damage heart muscles as well as the lining of blood vessels.
Congenital heart disease
Diseases of the heart that arise from heart defects those are present at birth. The common disease is caused by damaged heart valves. As it function is to keep the right direction of blood flow, abnormal valves may cause backward flow or a decreased outflow. There are two types of valve damage; an incompetent valve that does not close properly and the stenotic valve that does not open properly. Both types of valves make the heart work harder and inefficient.
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy or heart muscle damage which can be the result of many disorders e.g. coronary heart disease, prolonged high blood pressure, viral infection, diabetes, and some other causes. If the damage of heart muscles happens due to an unknown reason it is called idiopathic cardiomyopathy.
Obesity
Additional body weight is a burden to our heart and may impair the entire cardiovascular system resulting high blood pressure and heart disease, including coronary heart disease and CHF
Smoking and alcoholism
These are two risk factors in acquiring cardiovascular diseases. While smoking is a bad habit, which can ruin your health, to be more specific; harm your heart and lungs, alcoholism can impair the function of the liver and sooner or later may impair your heart as well.
Other causes
Some to mention are: prolonged arrhythmia (irregular heart beats), hyper or hypothyroid (excess or less of thyroid hormone), toxic exposures and chemotherapy (cancer medicines)
Symptoms of CHF
Most of cases do not aware that they have CHF, since symptoms do not show until the heart is already in a serious problem. The most common symptoms are:
One of the early symptoms is short of breath accompanied with cough or disability to take a deep breath. Patient with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema may mislead the symptoms for having an attack of those diseases. Patients without breathing problems may mislead the CHF symptom for a cold, flu or bronchitis.
However, the worsen condition of the disease may show 3 prominent symptoms:
Shortness of breath
This symptom persists from the early stage of CHF as mentioned above, but it becomes more severe along with the progress of the disease. Fluid accumulation in the lungs decreases pulmonary function to acquire enough oxygen. The suffering becomes prominent since the patient has difficulties in breathing (dyspnea) when at a lying position. The patients may often be awaken at night due to dyspnea, and try to comfort themselves at a sitting position. This symptom is called by paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. Sleeping while at a sitting position supported by several pillows is the most comfort for patients with CHF.
Exercise intolerance
Patient with CHF has a very limited ability to perform even the slightest activity as done by a normal person. The patient may get into short of breath and fatigue when doing normal home activities like cleaning, polishing, sweeping or even a short walk outside the house. Resting for awhile will be comfortable and makes the patient feel better.
Fluid retention
A prominent sign is the swelling of the arms and legs, including the ankles called by edema. A typical sign is the pitting edema, a concave mark which remains on the skin for a while after pushed with a finger. Fluid retention in the lungs contributes to the two other symptoms that lead to dyspnea and exercise intolerance. In severe cases, fluid accumulation may occur in the abdomen or stomach which is called by ascites. A bloated belly is a clear sign of possible ascites caused by CHF
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