Can I Lessen My Heart Failure Essay

right-sided CHF = fluid may back up into your abdomen, legs and feet, causing swelling.

Systolic heart failure is characterized by enlarged ventricles that are unable to fully contract to pump enough blood into circulation to adequately perfuse tissues. The enlargement in ventricles is due to an increased end-systolic volume. If the heart is not able to sufficiently pump the expected volume of blood with each contraction, which in a normal healthy heart is 50-60%, there will be a residual volume left in the heart after every pump (Heart Healthy Women, 2012). With the next period of filling, the heart will receive the same amount of blood volume from the atria combined with that residual volume from the previous contraction. This causes the ventricles to have to dilate to accommodate this increase in volume. The dilation causes the walls of the ventricles to stretch and become thin and weak. Also the myocardium, the muscle layer of the heart, will stretch and not be able to adequately make a full and forceful enough contraction to push blood from the ventricles (Lehne, 2010).

M.G., a “frequent flier,” is admitted to the emergency department (ED) with a diagnosis of heart failure (HF). She was discharged from the hospital 10 days ago and comes in today stating, “I just had to come to the hospital today because I can't catch my breath and my legs are as big as tree trunks.” After further questioning, you learn she is strictly following the fluid and salt restriction ordered during her last

When CHF starts to become worse, fluid can start to fill up in a person’s lungs and sometimes even throughout a person’s body. The fluid could cause a person to feel out of breath even while resting, swelling in the legs, ankles, or feet, weight gain, feeling bloated, and coughing, wheezing, and having to use the bathroom more at night. There is also a possibility that CHF can happen all of a sudden. When it starts to happen, it is called sudden heart failure. It will eventually cause congestion from fluid building up in the lungs. Symptoms can start to happen by having severe shortness of breath, an irregular or maybe even a fast heart beat and it may even cause coughing up foamy, pink mucus (Heart-Failure

Heart failure affects nearly 6 million Americans. It is the leading cause of hospitalization in people older than 65. Roughly 550,000 people are diagnosed with heart failure each year (Emory Healthcare, 2014). Heart failure is a pathologic state where the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the demand of the body’s metabolic needs or when the ventricle’s ability to fill is impaired. It is not a disease, but rather a complex clinical syndrome. The symptoms of heart failure come from pulmonary vascular congestion and inadequate perfusion of the systemic circulation. Individuals experience orthopnea,

This condition causes the body to move at a faster pace, and the heart can become overworked.

physical release of all the energy built up in the body does not actually take

As the blood quickly flows in, it will hit the hardened walls, creating an extra sound. In congestive heart failure, preload and contractility are major factors in the improper functioning of the heart as a pump.

The diagnosis is made when an ejection fraction of less than 40% is found during an echocardiogram test. Patients with known systolic heart failure and current or prior symptoms are Stage C. Most common symptoms include, shortness of breath, fatigue and reduced ability to exercise. Stage D is patients with systolic heart failure and presence of advanced symptoms after receiving optimum medical care. Other risk factors for heart failure are some diabetes medications, sleep apnea, congenital heart defects, viruses, and irregular heartbeats. Heart Failure can be treated and managed but not cured. It is a chronic condition.

To understand the signs and symptoms of left-sided versus right-sided heart failure, remember that left-sided signs and symptoms are found in the lungs. Left begins with L, as does lung. Any signs and symptoms not related to the lungs are caused by right-sided failure (Williams and Hopper). Some signs and symptoms of heart failure are shortness of breath (dyspnea), fatigue, chronic cough or wheezing, rapid or irregular heartbeat, lack of appetite or nausea, mental confusion or impaired thinking, fluid buildup and swelling, and rapid weight gain, and the need to urinate more at night. In order to determine heart failure the physician will do a diagnostic test which includes a chest x-ray, echocardiogram, ejection fraction (EF), and electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG).

A person with left sided heart failure my experience SOB and increased episodes of coughing caused by fluid buildup in the lungs. Pulmonary edema often causes a patient to cough up blood-tinged phlegm. (Cadwallader p. 1143). The PMI is displaced toward the left anterior axillary line, and there is a presence of S3 caused by ventricular filling, and/or S4 resulting from atrial contraction against a noncompliant ventricle. (Schilling-McCann p. 176). The person may have cool, pale skin resulting from peripheral vasoconstriction. Restlessness and confusion is normally due to decreased cardiac output.

Weighing of the patient daily at the same time with the same clothing and on the same scale preferably in the morning time after urination in order to monitor fluid overload level for 2-to-3 pounds gain in a day or five pounds in a week

Hypothesis: Exercise exists in different forms and has many benefits; it improves the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, development of bones, strengthens muscles and the lungs capacity plus it can make you feel good. There are different exercises and intensities for different benefits. Lower intensity exercises are not designed to work the body as hard. As a result less oxygen is needed and less waste is in excess. However even low

It is the time of progress. The time of supercomputers, space shuttles, and many other wonders of technology. We have walked on the moon. We do our shopping at home via Internet navigation.

From the very first time the heart starts pounding until the time of death, it may beat more than 3.5 billion times. The center of the circulatory system is the heart. The average heart beats 100,000 times each day, pushing around 2,000 gallons of blood throughout your body. With a life span of 70-90, the heart will beat two to three billion times and circulate 50-65 million gallons of blood.