Heart Failure
Causes
Heart failure often has more than one cause. The causes include:
- Long standing high blood pressure
- One or more heart attacks in the past
- History of coronary artery disease (a narrowing or blockage of arteries supplying blood to the heart, usually caused by buildup of cholesterol and other materials on the walls of the arteries).
- Heart valve problems, which can weaken the heart over time. (Heart valves act as doors and keep the blood flowing through the heart in the right direction.)
- Stenosis (narrowing) of the heart valves can prevent flowing from one chamber to another or out of the chamber into main circulation. This leads to a backup of blood in the chamber.
- Regurgitation is a term used to describe leaky heart valves. This means some of the blood leaving a chamber may flow back. This causes build-up of too much blood and makes it harder for the heart to pump the extra blood.
- Arrhythmias (abnormal heart beats). When the heartbeat is irregular (too fast or too slow) it affects the heart’s ability to pump enough blood throughout the body.
- Myocarditis is inflammation (body’s response to injury) of the heart muscle. Myocarditis can be due to an infection and can cause heart failure.
- Sleep apnea occurs when parts of the throat block a person’s airway. This often happens when sleeping at night, and cause pauses in breathing. Sleep apnea is a risk factor for heart failure and related health condition. Loud snoring can be a symptom of sleep apnea and should be discussed with your healthcare provider.
Heart Failure’s Impact on Other Health Conditions
Heart failure can cause some health conditions and make others worse.
More than half of all older adults with heart failure have problems with urinary incontinence (leakage of urine by accident). If a person has heart failure, they may experience symptoms like:
- Incontinence (lack of control over urination)
- Urgency (a sudden strong urge to urinate)
- Frequency (passing urine multiple times in a day)
- Nocturia (urinating more than twice at night)
If you have urinary incontinence, let your healthcare provider know. The diuretic medications (water pills) are likely to continue. However, there are things a person can do to manage urinary incontinence. They include:
- Changing the time diuretics are taken
- Emptying the bladder frequently
- Reducing foods and beverages that stimulate the bladder, such as caffeine or sugar
- Use special leak-proof pads, liners or other incontinence products
One of the health problems that happens alongside heart failure is kidney disease. This happens when the kidneys can't get enough blood supply due to weakness in the heart and become damaged as a result.
The damaged kidneys cannot perform their usual task of filtering wastes from blood. The poorly functioning kidney can’t expel the extra fluid to reduce load on the heart, which makes the heart failure worse.
So a healthcare provider needs to measure a person’s kidney function and may switch medications or change doses, depending on test results.
A person with chronic (long lasting) heart failure is quite likely to feel depressed at some point. Risk of depression increases with age and severity of the disease.
Frequent causes of depression in people with heart failure include:
- Fatigue (being too tired to enjoy usual activities or to exercise)
- Increased stress
- Physical changes
- Hospitalizations
- Loss of independence
- Feeling alone
- Lower quality of life in general
Getting treatment as soon as possible will help improve your mood and help you live longer and healthier.
Heart failure is one of the most common complications of diabetes. Diabetes happens when a person’s body can’t regulate blood sugar levels. About one in five people with heart failure also has diabetes.
Diabetic heart failure is related to a kind of heart damage known as cardiomyopathy. In this disease, the ventricles become damaged. Heart failure may develop because of high blood pressure or narrowed arteries in the heart.
Lower the risk of having diabetes related heart failure by:
- Keeping good control of blood sugar levels
- Taking the medications the healthcare provider prescribes
- Making healthy lifestyle changes
- Maintaining healthy blood pressure
Some commonly utilized medications can cause a person to hold more water/fluid in the body. So patients with heart failure should take an updated list of medications to their visit with healthcare provider, to make sure that neither prescription medicines nor over-the-counter medicines are causing any holding up of fluid in the body.
Last Updated February 2023