What is heart failure?

Heart failure, or congestive heart failure (CHF), is a heart disease in which your heart can’t adequately pump blood throughout your body. Either your heart is too weak to pump blood, or it’s unable to fill up with enough blood between pumps.

Heart failure is most often caused by another health problem that damages the heart, coronary artery disease (CAD), arrhythmia, or high blood pressure (hypertension). Heart failure can show up suddenly or develop gradually.

When your heart can’t pump enough blood to all the organs and tissues in your body, they don’t get enough oxygen and nutrients, leading to damage. Heart failure also increases your risk of having a heart attack.

What are the symptoms of heart failure?

Heart failure symptoms depend on the type of heart failure you have. Types include left-sided and right-sided heart failure. 

Left-sided heart failure

Left-sided heart failure happens when your heart’s lower left chamber — the left ventricle — becomes too big or thick to pump blood adequately throughout your body. This heart failure causes shortness of breath (SOB), fatigue, general weakness, sleepiness, or difficulty sleeping while lying flat.

Right-sided heart failure

Right-sided heart failure happens when the right ventricle isn’t strong enough to pump blood. Right-sided heart failure is usually caused by left-sided heart failure.

Heart failure symptoms include nausea, abdominal pain, weight gain, and/or leg swelling.

How is heart failure treated?

The cardiovascular specialists at the Arizona Heart Rhythm Center create individualized plans for heart failure based on which kind you have and how severe it is. This is balanced against your overall health.

Heart failure can’t be cured, so treatment focuses on managing its symptoms and preventing further damage. Your treatment can include:

• Heart-healthy diet
• Personalized exercise program
• Quitting smoking
• Avoiding or limiting alcohol
• Addressing other health problems like high blood pressure
• Taking heart medication
• Using diuretics to get rid of excess fluid
• Implanting a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) device

In some cases, heart surgery is recommended to fix the underlying cause of heart failure, such as a heart abnormality. The Arizona Heart Rhythm Center is a full-service cardiovascular practice that can manage all of your cardiac needs.

Call the Arizona Heart Rhythm Center today or schedule an appointment online to learn more about treatments for heart failure.