What the Hell Is Heart Failure?
That is a very good question. While traveling around the Big Island of Hawaii to the homes of patients receiving oxygen, I met heart failure where it lives.
Many of these people said “heart failure? I don’t have heart failure. My doctor said my heart is fine.”
I did my best to educate them on the symptoms of heart failure, so that they could see it in themselves, and so they could see how important it was that they make changes.
I have a close friend who recently had heart failure sneak up on her.
Terry has been living with diabetes for many years. Some time ago, she began having trouble with her stomach. After a few weeks of stomach pain and diarrhea, she began retaining water. That is when things started to spiral out of control.
“My biggest worry,” she said to me one day, “is that it is hard to breathe with all this fluid.”
Terry is a close friend and this concerned me. The first couple times I checked her oxygen level, she wasn’t having a problem.
As time went by, she wasn’t getting any releif from the stomach trouble or the increasing fluid. One morning I stopped by to check on her and found that her oxygen levels were extremely low!
Out of my friendship with her, I educated Terry on the importance of meeting this new oxygen need and encouraged her to get an order from her doctor for home oxygen. I was surprised at the amount of trouble she had.
As a matter of fact, she never did get an order. Terry took matters into her own hands and borrowed an oxygen machine from a friend of hers who wasn’t using it at the time.
Her symptoms improved dramatically, though she continued to struggle with stomach troubles and the water retention kept returning. She repeatedly told her doctor about ALL of her symptoms, asked for blood oxygen testing, and continued to have trouble getting treatment.
She had multiple strokes before she finally ended up in the hospital with a diagnosis of congestive heart failure. When she finally made it out of the intensive care unit, she continued to suffer with her bowel issues.
Now they were saying, “the bowel is a low priority, we need to worry about your heart first.”
The first of July, Terry was re-hospitalized with another bout of congestive heart failure. When the doctor came to see her, she had questions about plans to treat her stomach pain and diarhea, but the doctor refused to answer and turned and left the room.
When the nurse tried to get information for Terry, the doctor could be heard screaming at the nurse in the hallway,
“This patient is not compliant and doesn’t stick to her diet! She has been hospitalized many times before and I don’t have time for it!”
He just KNEW that Terry was lying. Her fluid problem was salt!? The poor woman was having trouble getting ANY food down, had liquid diarhea 24/7, and had lost 80 pounds!
She had been suffering for many months.
Now her doctor was calling her a liar?
First she couldn’t get a heart failure diagnosis, and now can’t get the oxygen order she needs or treatment for her ailing stomach.
I urge the medical community to listen to your patients. Without really listening, it is difficult to be effective.
Unfortunately, even for doctors who listen to their patients, it is difficult to diagnose heart failure due to lack of universally agreed definition and difficulties in diagnosis, particularly when the condition is considered mild.
So, What the Hell IS Heart Failure?
Congestive heart failure is an inability of the heart to adequately circulate blood, caused by a weakening of the heart muscle.
Common symptoms of heart failure include the following:
- *Shortness of breath during mild or usual daily activities
- *Having trouble breathing when lying down
- *Weight gain with swelling in the legs, ankles, or lower back from fluid buildup in the body. (swelling can be mild or moderate)
- *General fatigue, weakness, and tiredness
- *Chest pain
- *Concentration problems, loss of short-term memory
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*Dry, hacking cough
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*Inability to sleep unless propped up
- *Waking up breathless at night
- *Abdominal soreness
- *Lack of appetite
- *Abdominal bloating
- *Constipation or diarrhea
- *Oversweating
- *44% of CHF patients develop anemia
Congestive heart failure is the result of changes in the functions of the heart, caused by underlying conditions, such as:
- *long-term effects of high blood pressure
- *previous heart attacks
- *arrhythmia
- *coronary heart disease
- *heart valve disorders
- *cardiomyopathy
- *chronic lung disease
These conditions produce congestive heart failure by affecting the ability of the heart to contract properly. Other conditions that may lead to CHF include:
- *congenital heart disease
- *diabetes
- *anemia
- *obstructive sleep apnea
- *lupus
- *rheumatoid arthritis
- *hyperthyroidism
- *certain chemo-therapy drugs
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*alcohol abuse
- *abuse of drugs such as amphetamines and cocaine
The risk of developing CHF is increased by various lifestyle and dietary factors including:
- *standard American diet
- *smoking
- *obesity
- *lack of exercise
- *high salt intake
- *emotional distress
- *fluid overload
Rapid weight increase is generally due to the retention of fluid. Weight gain of more than two pounds in 24 hours is associated with admission to the hospital for heart failure.
Slower weight gain of as much as 20 pounds over a longer period of time, may not be recognized as fluid. The individual just thinks they have “put on a few pounds”, and the extra fluid they carry around overworks their heart muscle and eventually damages their heart.
Why is it so important that you make changes?
The CDC’s statistics on hospitalization for heart failure more than doubled between 1979 and 2004.
550,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2004 alone. The estimated direct cost for heart failure in 2006 was $29.6 BILLION in the United States.
The CDC estimates that 5 MILLION Americans have heart failure.
That number has to be incredibly low considering the difficulties in diagnosis.
Lack of early diagnosis would explain why the CDC says:
20% of patients die within one year of diagnosis
50% die within five years of diagnosis.
Congestive heart failure usually takes many years to kill you. Like ten, twenty years before it actually kills you.
Are you going to wait for your doctor to sound the alarm?
How long will it take for heart failure to kill YOU?
That depends on how soon you take action and make changes!
Do you need to hear any more about heart failure to know that you need to take action today?
I hope you become inspired. Education needs to happen in our 40s and 50s in order to protect our precious quality of life in our 60s and 70s. Much can be done, as well, to restore quality of life to those who are already suffering.
It is just so important that we be involved in building our health. To put it off another day, is to live in denial, and sit idly by while our golden years, or those of a loved one slip away.
The problem is, change is hard.
First, you need to know what is required to create measurable results.
What changes do you need to make? That’s tough to figure out all by itself.
The most effective health building plans are simple. That is why I build my workshops around 3 basic categories.
So whether you are a patient or a care giver the following solutions are your best starting point:
- Stress management
- Breath building
- Exercise
Plus Everyday include:
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*pure water
- *whole food
- *sunshine
- *and laughter
Diet changes require new knowledge and skills, and maybe receipes from friends. Eating better will improve results in all of the basic categories. Never underestimate the power of whole food.
Do what you can in any situation, and then relax. Let go. Release the tension within, or it will kill you. It will squeeze the life out of you.
Learning to release tension can be done in many different ways. What works for one person may not work for another. Staying open and willing to accept change will help you discover new health building habits.
Take many deep breaths every day.
The better you utilize your lungs, the longer and better you will live.
If you can’t be active, your breathing muscles will grow progressively weaker; your life will be cut short, and more important, the quality of your life will be lost.
Take deep breaths every day, whatever your situation. Make it a habit.
Be active in a way that adds joy to your life, or suffer through activity until you crave it. One way or the other, move it or lose it.
Before beginning any type of exercise or activity, it is important to establish safe blood oxygen levels!
If your blood oxygen level is low at any point during your day it is harmful. The lack of oxygen will contribute to further weakening of the heart muscle.
If you try to “work out” with a low blood oxygen level, it could kill you!
Any measurement below 92% oxygen saturation is worth treating with supplemental oxyen, though insurance companies are not willing to pay for it until oxygen saturation readings fall to 88%.
Since consistency is ultimately the determining factor with any health building effort, building a support system is extremely important. Without a community to give you that support and encouragement along the way, it is a long-lonely road.
Heartfailuresolutions.com is an organized effort to establish the community of support that you need to bring about lasting change.
Get involved to make a difference in your own life, as well as the millions that this resource will help!
It is up to us.
Can the other members of our community count on you?
Many blessings,
Carrie
PS- Beat heart disease, enter your name and email address in the box at the right, and get your heart defense education delivered to your inbox.
PPS– Remember everyday:
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Relax and Release tension
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Take deeep breaths
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Be active in a way that adds joy to your life
Tags: anemia, arrhythmia, arthritis, cardiomyopathy, chest pain, concentration problems, congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure, cough, diabetes, emotional distress, fatigue, heart attack, heart disease, heart failure, high blood pressure, hyperthyroidism, inability to sleep unless propped up, low oxygen level, lung disease, lupus, retaining fluid, shortness of breath, sleep apnea, smoking, swelling, technorati, tiredness, waking up breathless at night, weakness, weight gain
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August 24th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Great information. It’s much better to take a few steps toward prevention and look for a cure later.