PHYSICIAN VOICES

5 Cardiologist Tips for People With Heart Failure

Your heart has to do a lot of pumping at all times to send needed blood and oxygen to the rest of your body. However, sometimes, your heart becomes damaged and weakened due to several different reasons, and it has to work harder to pump the same amount of blood to your body. This is called heart failure. Eventually, the heart can’t keep up with the workload, and fluids begin to back up into your lungs and abdomen, making breathing more difficult. I see many patients with heart failure and they tend to ask me about the same things. I try to provide patients with a solid foundation of knowledge about their condition so they can manage it successfully.

I see many patients in my practice who are at a high risk of developing heart failure. Often, they think they can’t do anything to prevent it—they assume it’s just a normal consequence of getting old. However, that’s not true. You can try to eliminate risk factors of heart failure, like lowering high blood pressure, losing weight if you’re overweight, exercising more, cutting down on sodium, reducing alcohol intake, and quitting smoking.  Of course, there are risk factors we can’t control, like family history, but there are definitely things people can do to lower their risk and stay healthy.

Most commonly, patients get confused about the name of the condition, which is quite misleading. They tend to think that their hearts have stopped working at all. However, with heart failure, your heart doesn’t completely fail or stop working. It just has to work harder to deliver blood to the body, which can lead to problems. It’s still pumping — it just has a much weaker capacity.

A lot of my patients think that they need to stop exercising if they have heart failure because they don’t want to make their hearts work harder. However, your heart is a muscle, so the more you use it, the stronger it gets. It’s important patients understand that activity is very important for managing heart failure. The American Heart Association recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity exercise. Not all my heart failure patients will be able to get that, and that’s fine — talk with your health provider to plan an activity schedule that fits your lifestyle and your condition. A little can go a long way in keeping you healthy and making your heart stronger.

Heart failure is a long-term condition, so patients need to commit to lasting lifestyle changes and make sure they follow their treatment regimen closely. These changes are so much easier to implement when patients have friends and loved ones supporting them. Caregivers need to know how important it is that patients stick to low-fat, low-sodium, and no-cholesterol diets, and often caregivers adopt these diets themselves to ensure success. It’s also key for caregivers to be aware of what medications the patient is taking, including dosages and frequency. Caregivers should also help patients monitor their symptoms and be able to tell if symptoms are worsening. Lastly, caregivers need to remember to take care of themselves, too. They have to be in good physical and mental health to take care of patients with heart failure and provide them with the support they need.

Some patients assume a diagnosis of heart failure means they’re going to die. However, the good news is we’ve made lots of advances in recent years to treat heart failure successfully. We’ve got new medications, new devices, and new surgical procedures that have led to a higher quality of life and increased lifespan. Managing heart failure is a long-term commitment, but If you follow your treatment regimen closely and make healthy lifestyle changes, you can live well with heart failure.