What Is Congestive Heart Failure?
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition in which the heart’s function as a pump to deliver oxygen rich blood to the body is inadequate to meet the body’s needs. Congestive heart failure can be caused by: • diseases that weaken the heart muscle, • diseases that cause stiffening of the heart muscles, or • diseases that increase oxygen demand by the body tissue beyond the capability of the heart to deliver. The heart has two atria (right atrium and left atrium) that make up the upper chambers of the heart, and two ventricles (left ventricle and right ventricle) that make up the lower chambers of the heart. The ventricles are muscular chambers that pump blood when the muscles contract (the contraction of the ventricle muscles is called systole). Many diseases can impair the pumping action of the ventricles. For example, the muscles of the ventricles can be weakened by heart attacks or infections (myocarditis). The diminished pumping ability of the ventricles due to muscle weakening i
Congestive heart failure is not a simple diagnosis. Rather it is a condition where the heart is unable to fill with blood or pump enough blood to the rest of the body. It does not come upon a person suddenly like a heart attack. It results over time because of one or more underlying factors. Generally speaking CHF is the physiological result of damage to the heart caused by some underlying condition. The result is an enlarged heart or a heart that is unable to pump effectively enough to supply the body with necessary oxygen. The heart keeps pumping, sometimes overworking itself, while other major organs, and often the heart itself, suffer blood deprivation. Because CHF is the result of other underlying problems, treatments must be evaluated based on the underlying cause of the disease. That is to say we do not always treat CHF directly. Rather we try to identify the underlying causes and treat those. For that reason it is imperative for us to maintain good heart health habits. By takin
