What is congestive heart failure (CHF) and the symptoms of CHF?
Congestive heart failure also referred to as CHF or simply “heart failure” is a condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood to the body’s other organs. This can result from a number of causes, including blockages of arteris, scar tissue, high blood pressure, infections which have attacked the heart (known as endocarditis or myocarditis), breakdown of the heart muscle tissue (also known as cardiomyopathy), birth defects (also known as congenital heart defects), or rheumatic fever. When CHF is caused by blockages, one of the treatments is cardiac bypass surgery to remove blockages or to replace blocked valves with a tissue that “bypasses” the blocakge. The signs of heart failure include: shortness of breath (also called dyspnea), persistent coughing or wheezing, edema (build up of fluid in the body), tiredness, loss of apetite, confusion or imapred thinking, racing heart (palpitations).
