If your heart muscle becomes too weak, you may develop heart failure (a serious condition that needs special treatment). Most people are only mildly affected by cardiomyopathy and can lead relatively normal lives. However, people who have severe heart failure may need a heart transplant.
Proper treatment can improve the signs and symptoms of heart failure and may help some people live longer. Lifestyle changes — such as losing weight, exercising, reducing salt (sodium) in your diet and managing stress — can improve your quality of life. However, heart failure can be life-threatening.
Heart failure is a long-term condition that tends to get gradually worse over time. It cannot usually be cured, but the symptoms can often be controlled for many years.
When the heart is weak, it is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. Conditions like diabetes, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure damage or cause the heart to overwork, which can lead to heart failure.
One study says that people with heart failure have a life span 10 years shorter than those who don't have heart failure. Another study showed that the survival rates of people with chronic heart failure were 80% to 90% for one year, but that dropped to 50% to 60% for year five and down to 30% for 10 years.
Patients with congestive heart failure have a high incidence of sudden cardiac death that is attributed to ventricular arrhythmias. The mortality rate in a group of patients with class III and IV heart failure is about 40% per year, and half of the deaths are sudden.
In general, about half of all people diagnosed with congestive heart failure will survive 5 years. About 30% will survive for 10 years. In patients who receive a heart transplant, about 21% of patients are alive 20 years later.
Weakness or dizziness. Discomfort in your chest; you may feel a pressure or weight in your chest with activity or when going out in cold air. Palpitations (this may feel like a rapid heart rhythm, irregular heartbeat, skipped beats, or a flip-flop feeling in your chest.)
Adults age 65 and older are more likely than younger people to suffer from cardiovascular disease, which is problems with the heart, blood vessels, or both. Aging can cause changes in the heart and blood vessels that may increase a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
If your heart weakens too much, it will be unable to pump blood properly to the organs and tissues throughout your body. Cardiomyopathy can be caused by coronary artery disease, a heart attack, or some other underlying health condition. In some cases, it can be genetic, which means you inherited it from your parents.
You may have trouble breathing, an irregular heartbeat, swollen legs, neck veins that stick out, and sounds from fluid built up in your lungs. Your doctor will check for these and other signs of heart failure. A test called an echocardiogram is often the best test to diagnose your heart failure.
Demanding jobs, busy family schedules and even a belief that we still have time to get back into shape can lead us to a more sedentary life than we realize. The good news is that it's really never too late to help your heart health, although there are some important things to keep in mind.
Chronic heart failure is a long-term condition for which there's currently no cure. However, with medication, many people are able to maintain a reasonable quality of life.
For most people, heart failure is a long-term condition that can't be cured. But treatment can help keep the symptoms under control, possibly for many years. The main treatments are: healthy lifestyle changes.
If you have heart failure, you may not have any symptoms, or the symptoms may range from mild to severe. Symptoms can be constant or can come and go. Heart failure symptoms are related to the changes that occur to your heart and body, and the severity depends on how weak your heart is.
Although it can be a severe disease, heart failure is not a death sentence, and treatment is now better than ever. When this happens, blood and fluid may back up into the lungs (congestive heart failure), and some parts of the body don't get enough oxygen-rich blood to work normally.
Systolic Heart Failure This is the most common cause of heart failure and occurs when the heart is weak and enlarged. The muscle of the left ventricle loses some of its ability to contract or shorten. In turn, it may not have the muscle power to pump the amount of oxygenated and nutrient-filled blood the body needs.
Fatigue and Activity Changes
The easiest way to know that heart failure is getting worse is you're able to do less and less. People start pacing themselves. They stop doing hobbies that involve any physical activity. They used to go fishing, but not anymore.
Patients are considered to be in the terminal end stage of heart disease when they have a life expectancy of six months or less. Only a doctor can make a clinical determination of congestive heart failure life expectancy.
Regular exercise has many benefits for patients with heart failure. A regular activity program will help: Reduce heart disease risk factors and the chance of having future heart problems. Strengthen the heart and cardiovascular system.
Tests for heart failure
Tests you may have to diagnose heart failure include: blood tests – to check whether there's anything in your blood that might indicate heart failure or another illness. an electrocardiogram (ECG) – this records the electrical activity of your heart to check for problems.
The progress of heart failure is unpredictable and different for each person. In many cases, the symptoms remain at a stable level for quite some time (months or years) before becoming worse. In some cases the severity and symptoms become gradually worse over time.
Stress can cause a heart attack, sudden cardiac death, heart failure, or arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) in persons who may not even know they have heart disease.