Heart Failure – Some Facts
Heart failure is a frightening thought for most people, especially when there are news reports almost daily about someone having died in the prime of their life, without warning, because of a massive heart attack or stroke.
Heart failure happens when the heart is just not able to pump sufficient blood to meet the demands of the body any longer. It is a condition that normally develops gradually over the course of many years as the heart slowly loses the ability to pump effectively. It therefore works less efficiently, leading to more stress on the heart and further decline in it’s condition.
In many cases, the first symptom that a person is aware of that would indicate a problem, is when they have their first heart attack. However, this usually occurs after years have passed from the beginning of the diminishment of the condition of the heart.
How serious the outcome of any kind of episode of heart failure will be measured, is by how much pumping capacity the heart has lost. Everyone loses some degree of pumping ability as part of the natural aging process, but when a coronary failure strikes the loss is hastened, sometimes to a great degree, depending on how bad the incident was.
The severity of the heart failure incident will determine the impact on the person’s life from that point forward. A mild heart attack may not have a great deal of repercussions on a person’s day-to-day lifestyle, while a severe event can interfere greatly with even the most simple and basic of daily activities.
The good news is that with medical technologies and advancements that are available today, people are often able to recover and return to a normal life. They are able to lead full, productive lives when they receive the proper treatment and combine it with a healthy lifestyle.
It has been reported that in the United States, all types of heart conditions are on the rise, and the National Institutes for Health (NIH) has gone so far as to call congestive heart failure in the U.S. a “new epidemic.” This epidemic situation has been evidenced in the increase in visits to the doctor for heart related problems, which rose to 3.8 million visits in 2003, up from 1.7 million in 1980.
Congestive heart failure has been the highest diagnosed condition in 875,000 hospitalizations and has been the most frequent diagnosis for hospital patients over 65 years of age.
The NIH has also reported that the occurrence of heart failure is doubled in the population of people who have high blood pressure as compared to those who do not have hypertension. They also reported that men and women equally suffer from the congestive heart condition and it is seen in approximately 10 out of every 1,000 persons over age 65.
It has also been found that people with high blood sugar or diabetes are at a much greater risk of having an episode of heart failure as compared to those who do not have diabetes. Part of the elevated risk comes because of the other related issues of health diabetes patients deal with such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity.
Published by Health Editor
