Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure (CHF) or simply heart failure (HF) is one of the leading modern day killers, afflicting nearly 5 million Americans, commonly restricting patients' activities and rendering them bed-ridden. The American Heart Association estimates that more than 266,000 people in the United States die each year from heart failure. Congestive heart failure is primarily a disease of the elderly with approximately 6% to 10% of the population over 65 years suffering from this disease and approximately 80% of patients hospitalized with severe congestive heart failure being more than 65 years old.

What is Congestive Heart Failure?

Congestive heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood to the body’s tissues as well as the lungs. When not enough blood is being pumped into the body, the lungs may become congested with blood that flows backwards from the heart. This is where the term “congestive heart failure” comes from.

Symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure

One of the most common symptoms of congestive heart failure is shortness of breath. This means that a person may become short-winded faster than they did before while doing their everyday, normal routines. Congestive heart failure patients often complain about shortness of breath while climbing flights of stairs or walking long distances. A congestive heart failure patient may get more tired than usual or their legs may feel weaker when doing their daily activities. In severe cases, congestive heart failure patients may have difficulty breathing just by walking to the refrigerator or simply taking a shower..

Another symptom of congestive heart failure is an accumulation of fluids in the tissues. For congestive heart failure patients, this most commonly occurs in the legs and is called leg edema. Congestive heart failure patients often accumulate large amounts of water in their legs. The extra weight of the water combined with shortness of breath often makes walking a heavy chore for severe congestive heart failure patients. Also, fluids in the lungs often accompany congestive heart failure. Also known as pulmonary edema, this can be caused by the failure of the heart to remove the fluids from lung circulation.

Congestive heart failure patients also often experience orthopnea. This means a congestive heart failure patient may have trouble breathing when lying flat. This is often caused by either pulmonary edema and/or left ventricle failure in the heart. The heart failure patient may also suffer from paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. This complicated term refers to a severe shortness of breath that wakes a person up from sleep. This is caused by an increasing amount of fluid entering the lungs during sleep.

Abdominal discomfort is yet another symptom of congestive heart failure. Stomach pain and nausea could be signs of heart failure. Sometimes, the severe heart failure patient will vomit due to extreme nausea. In severe cases of heart failure, a person may become confused and disoriented. Memory impairment may also occur.

Congestive Heart Failure Treatment

Congestive heart failure treatment by traditional method usually include a regimen of medicine, proper diet, and modified daily activities. However, TheraVitae has developed a new adult stem cell therapy called VesCell™ to treat congestive heart failure. Click here for more details.