Heart Failure Complications- How is the Body Affected

Your ticker may not be strong enough to pump out as much blood as required by your body when you have heart failure. The ticker enlarges as it tries to move more blood, it also pumps very fast and there is narrowing of blood vessels to get more blood out to your body. With the heart working harder, it becomes weaker with increase in damage. The body receives less oxygen, and an individual might experience symptoms like shortness of breath, swelling in the legs and fluid buildup. The body in trying to keep the blood it has- to supply to your ticker and brain, leaves less for organs like your kidneys and liver which can eventually get damaged due to lack of enough blood. Although you cannot cure heart failure (HF), you can manage it efficiently by following your treatment plan with medicines, diet, exercise, and surgery being just some of the treatments your doctor might suggest to prevent the problems mentioned below:

Abnormal Heart Rhythm- Atrial Fibrillation (A-fib) is a type of abnormal heart rhythm that HF can cause that causes your ticker to quiver and skip instead of beating. An irregular heartbeat can cause pooling of blood which might lead to clots. A clot can break and travel to the lungs which is called pulmonary embolism. A clot can also travel to the brain which can cause a stroke if it blocks a blood vessel there. 

If your heart is weak, the upper and lower chambers might not squeeze at the right time in moving blood through your body. Your ticker might beat too slowly, too quickly, or in an irregular rhythm. The heart- when the rhythm is off- can’t pump enough blood out to your body.

Problems with Heart Valve- The four valves of the ticker open and close to keep blood flowing in and out of your heart. With the damage getting worse, your ticker has to work harder to pump out blood, it also enlarges which can damage the valves.

Lung Problems- A damaged ticker cannot pump blood as effectively from your lungs out to the body that causes backing up of blood thus raising pressure in the veins inside your lungs, that pushes fluid into your air sacs. With build up of liquid, it becomes difficult to breathe- this is called pulmonary edema.

Liver Damage- HF can steal the required blood that the liver needs to work and also causes fluid buildup that puts extra pressure on the portal vein, which brings blood to your liver, which can scar the organ to the point where it doesn't work as well as it should.

Other complications are kidney damage or failure, anemia, extreme weight and muscle loss.

Preventing Complications:

If left untreated, heart failure will get worse over time which can be life-threatening. Follow the advice of your healthcare provider and adhere to your treatment plan as the better you take care of your ticker, the less likely you are to have other problems.

Get trained in the life-saving CPR procedure to efficiently face out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases. Keep your heart in good shape to keep cardiac emergencies at bay. For CPR training, choose an accredited training center such as the AHA certified CPR Columbus in Ohio. For more information, or to join a CPR course, contact CPR Columbus on 614-321-2094.