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Information on Heart Failure Treatment

Heart failure is a serious condition that worsens over time, but certain cases can be reversed with appropriate treatment. Several treatments are there that can relieve symptoms and stop or slow the gradual worsening of the condition even when the heart muscle is impaired.

The objectives behind heart therapy are to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life, slow advancement of disease, lower the need for emergency room visits and hospitalization and ensure longer shelf-life for people. Treatment options depend on the type, cause, symptoms and severity of the heart failure with more than one therapy being used, in general. The treatment options include lifestyle changes, treating the underlying causes, medications and surgery.


Lifestyle Changes:
Making modifications often improve or control some of the factors contributing to heart failure. For instance, people with heart failure (HF) can see stark improvement by:

1.      Losing weight.
2.      Eating a heart-healthy diet that is low in fat and sodium.
3.      Limiting or avoiding caffeine intake.
4.      Getting regular exercise including a physical rehabilitation program, once symptoms are stable.
5.      Reducing stress and managing depression.
6.      Keeping track of symptoms.
7.      Quitting smoking and avoiding exposure to second-hand smoke.
8.      Limiting intake of alcohol to no more than one drink two or three times a week.
9.      Getting adequate rest to avoid stressing the heart which can be done by modifying daily activities.
10.  Monitoring the condition by having regular checkups.

Treating the Underlying Causes:
There are a number of conditions that can lead to HF. Surgery or angioplasty to open clogged blood vessels in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), prescribed medications to control high blood pressure (HBP), diabetes, anemia, etc. are ways the other/underlying factors can be treated. Furthermore, treating abnormal heart rhythms called arrhythmias is particularly important in patients with HF.

Medications:
There are a number of medications that doctors prescribe for HF which may be prescribed to dilate blood vessels, strengthen the ticker’s pumping action and lower water and sodium in the body to reduce the heart’s workload. Types of medication include Angiotensive converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (they dilate, or widen the arteries improving blood flow so that the ticker doesn’t have to pump hard), beta-blockers (lowers BP and blocks and decreases the effect of harmful hormones that can cause advancement of the disease), diuretics or water pills (they help the kidneys to produce more urine thus ridding the body of excess fluid, which can stress the ticker), potassium and magnesium supplements, Digoxin, anti-arrhythmic drugs to treat abnormal heart rhythms.

Surgery:
Some of the surgical options to treat the underlying causes of HF include coronary artery bypass graft or angioplasty that prevents and treats HF caused by blocked arteries; repairing congenital heart defects (CHF); pacemakers and other devices such as artificial heart valves implantation. Surgical treatments for HF itself include heart transplantation, heart reconstruction, left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) (these may be implanted in the chest to increase the pumping action of ticker).
Hope, you find this information to be useful.

Stay prepared to face out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases efficiently. CPR Tampa in Florida offers CPR courses for both healthcare and non-healthcare providers. Either register online or call on 813-453-9974 to register for a course. 
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