Heart Failure Treatment

Heart failure treatment is a serious need for the patient whose heart can’t pump blood in the way it was intended to be circulated. There are times when the cardiac muscle cannot fill with enough blood and other conditions when the muscle isn’t strong enough to actually pump blood through the circulatory system. Cardio breakdown doesn’t happen over night; the muscle grows weaker over time and there may be few symptoms for an extended period. Cardio malfunction can occur on the right side, the left side or both sides of the cardiac muscle. The breakdown occur in both children and adults and affects about five million Americans each year.
Cardio failure takes different forms, depending on which side of the cardiac muscle is affected. Left sided breakdown usually results in shortness of breath and fatigue, while right sided breakdown can cause those symptoms plus fluid buildup in the feet, ankles, liver, and abdomen and sometime though rarely in the veins of the neck. In most cases, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and diabetes are the main causes of this disorder. Cardiac breakdown treatment is needed for cardio problems that may not immediately cause death, but needs addressing to keep the condition from becoming fatal. There are five million people in the United States who have this condition each year. The breakdown be treated but must not be ignored. Treatment begins with addressing the three main causes for cardiac failure.

Coronary artery disease, often referred to as CAD, is the fatty buildup of plaque in the arteries of the cardiac muscle. The muscle is damaged and the rest of the cardiac muscle must work harder. While plaque buildup is partly due to a fatty diet, smoking, lack of exercise and other causes, much of it is hereditary with a liver that naturally produces more cholesterol that the body can handle. Heart failure treatment and the prevention of the breakdown happening will include cholesterol busting drugs that fight cholesterol in different ways. Depending on the physician’s assessment of the LDL and HDL levels and the triglyceride readings, the doctor will prescribe particular cholesterol protocols. Without heart failure being a part of the picture, and without diabetes and high blood pressure as part of the patient’s history, a target goal of 160 mg/dl is desired.

High blood pressure is another of the big three causes for cardiac failure and one of the targets for heart failure treatment. High blood pressure usually has no symptoms and a person can have the disorder for years and never be aware of it. During that time a lot of damage can be done to the heart, liver, kidneys and other organs. It is often the unawareness of the hypertension that brings about the beginnings of cardiac failure. In the case of hypertension issues, the physician will prescribe a drug therapy that will help control the blood pressure problem. Diet and exercise can also help treat the disorder that over one in three Americans have, many not even knowing they have the disorder.

Diabetes is the third of the major causes for cardiac breakdown and the physician will want the person who has this condition to immediately begin to address it as part of pre heart failure treatment. The truth of the matter is that often after a person is diagnosed with diabetes there is an onset of heart failure. In most every case, it is not the diabetes drug that causes the cardiac breakdown but rather the fact that the person had diabetes for so many years and left it untreated. Cardiac breakdown is one of the most common complications of diabetes, so a physician treating a patient for diabetes will want to address the issue of heart failure treatment as a regular part of the physical exam process from the time of diabetic discovery forward. There are some diabetic drugs that may actually bring some fluid around the heart, further complicating a possible cardiac failure situation so a physician will have to monitor the patient regularly.

While cardiac breakdown, given a prolonged period of not being treated can be life threatening, is certainly treatable with the right medication and the patient losing weight. Getting plenty of exercise, reducing salt intake and having a positive attitude can all go a long way towards having a successful heart failure treatment program. Of course, smoking is one of the high risk causes of cardiac breakdown and any heart failure treatment program will include a demand that a patient stop smoking completely as part of the long term treatment. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood, making the heart work harder and faster.

Heart failure treatment will include a diet that is low in salt content. Less than two thousand milligrams of salt a day are recommended for patients who have cardiac failure issues. Since one serving of processed soup can have seven hundred to a thousand mgs. of salt already in it, there must be an ever vigilant look out for salt contained in so many processed foods that almost everyone is exposed to in America. Cardiac weakness therapy must also include a limiting of alcohol and of course the addition of regular exercise to the everyday regimen of the patient. Additionally, the physician will talk to the patient about ways of reducing stress.