The heart is vital (literally), so it’s important to keep it in tip-top shape! The rest of the body depends on the heart to deliver blood and oxygen to all its cells and organs. If the heart becomes damaged, it can lead to what is known as heart failure. Keeping your heart healthy not only involves proper diet and exercise, but also involves making sure conditions that can cause heart damage are properly managed.

 

Some conditions that can damage the heart are:

• cardiomyopathy
• coronary artery disease
• diabetes
• heart attacks
• high blood pressure

 

During heart failure the heart is unable to pump blood effectively enough to meet the body’s demands. Because the heart cannot fulfill its primary duty, it will try to compensate by enlarging itself, increasing muscle mass or pumping faster. The body can also react by narrowing blood vessels and diverting blood away from less important tissues and organs. As heart failure worsens the compensations and symptoms begin to show.

 

Common symptoms of heart failure include: shortness of breath, fatigue, coughing, racing heart, excessive tiredness, loss of appetite, and chest pain. Risk factors for developing heart failure include diabetes, poorly controlled high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or family history of heart failure. If you think you might have symptoms of heart failure, it’s important to speak with your doctor as soon as possible.

 

There are about 5.7 million adults in the United States who have heart failure and it’s the leading cause of death in diabetics. In most cases, heart failure cannot be reversed once diagnosed. However, researchers are continuing to study ways to reverse heart failure as well as new and better ways to treat it. Currently, many of our ENCORE research sites have new heart failure research studies enrolling. If you or someone you know has heart failure, and are interested in participating, call our office to find out more!