Heart Failure Health Center

Medical Reference Related to Heart Failure

41. Treating Heart Failure with Diuretics
    

    WebMD explains why diuretics are used to treat heart failure and how they work.

42. Treating Severe Heart Failure
    

    WebMD looks at how severe heart failure is treated with inotropic therapy.

43. Health Tools
    

    Health tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.Actionsets are designed to help people take an active role in managing a health condition. Activity and exercise for heart failure Avoiding triggers for sudden heart failure Eating less sodium when you have heart failure Taking your medicines properly when you have heart failure Watching your fluid intake when .

44. Topic Overview
    

    High-output heart failure happens when the body's need for blood is unusually high,so heart failure symptoms happen even though the heart is working well. This type of heart failure happens to a very small number of people with heart failure. What happens to the heart? High-output heart failure occurs when the normally functioning heart cannot keep up with an unusually high demand for blood to ...

45. Symptoms
    

    In the earliest stages of heart failure, you may not have any symptoms. Shortness of breath with exertion and fatigue often develop when the weakened heart is not pumping enough blood to meet your body's needs for oxygen and nutrients. The body's efforts to make up for heart failure eventually cause symptoms to get worse. Classic symptoms of heart failureSymptomWhat is it?More ...

46. Topic Overview
    

    If you have heart failure,symptoms start to happen when your heart cannot pump enough blood to the rest of your body. Shortness of breath While shortness of breath is the most common symptom of heart failure,it may be difficult or impossible to distinguish it from shortness of breath caused by other health problems such as emphysema or severe anemia. Your doctor can help you determine why ...

47. Cause
    

    Heart failure is caused by diseases or other factors that affect the pumping ability of the heart, specifically the left lower chamber (left ventricle). When the heart cannot pump well, it is called systolic heart failure. Things that affect how the heart pumps include:Coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart attack (most common causes).Damage from poorly controlled high blood pressure or ...

48. Frequently Asked Questions
    

    Learning about heart failure:What is heart failure?What causes heart failure?What are the symptoms of heart failure?What increases my risk for heart failure?When do I need to see my doctor?Who is affected by heart failure?Being diagnosed:How will my doctor diagnose heart failure?What is an echocardiogram?What are the different types of heart failure?Should I see a specialist?Getting treatment: ...

49. Topic Overview
    

    Right-sided heart failure means that the right side of the heart is not pumping blood to the lungs as well as normal. What happens to the heart? Most people develop heart failure because of a problem with the left ventricle. But reduced function of the right ventricle can also occur in heart failure. As blood begins to back up behind the failing left ventricle and into the lungs,it will ...

50. Topic Overview
    

    While there are certain symptoms that people with heart failure experience more commonly,there are many other symptoms that heart failure can cause. These symptoms are typically less common because they often result from more severe heart failure,when the body can no longer compensate properly for the failing heart. The first table summarizes congestive symptoms that result from fluid leaking ...