Congestive Heart Failure Treatment

How to Treat Heart Failure if You Have Sleep Apnea?

What is the congestive heart failure treatment in patients with sleep disorders?

The information about treatment for congestive heart failure is important, but won't cure you of heart disease. What will make the difference between illness and health is your own involvement in beating congestive heart failure.

Firstly, you need to know the key elements that can reduce your heart disease:

• Monitor your blood pressure

  Blood pressure keeps nutrients and oxygen moving to the body's cells. The pressure created by the squeezing of the heart must be sufficient to overcome the force of gravity and reach your head when you stand. In other words, your blood pressure keeps you alive.

  However, if the blood pressure is too high for too long it can stiffen and narrow the insides of your blood vessels, forcing your heart to work harder than it should.

  In time, the heart can begin to wear out, sending less blood to your body with each beat than your body really needs, a condition known as congestive heart failure.

  In other words...get your blood pressure tested.

  If you have a congestive heart failure, there's good chance you have a high blood pressure. Reducing your high blood pressure can minimize your risk for more severe heart problems and stroke.

  Bottom line...first congestive heart failure treatment is to reduce your blood pressure with lifestyle changes or with medication.




• Get your Cholesterol Tested

  The research studies involving thousands of patients with heart disease have shown that lowering cholesterol decreases your risk of having a congestive heart failure or heart attack by as much as 40%.

  The excess of cholesterol on the insides of the artery walls cause the arteries to narrow and harden, making them vulnerable to blockage and rupture. As you probably think, when this occurs in arteries supplying the heart, it can damage the heart.

  So, next step towards congestive heart failure treatment is to find out if your cholesterol levels are too high with a blood test called lipid panel.

  After you found that you have high cholesterol levels in your blood, you should aim to lower it through diet, exercise, and weight loss, before moving to medications.




• Taking charge of Your Fitness

  When your family doctor announce you that you have a heart failure, your instinct may tell you that the best and safest thing to do is go home, lie down, have a good long rest and let the heart repair itself.

  But in this case, your instinct is wrong, because the exercise is good for the heart. Studies show that, in people with heart problems, the exercise strengthens the heart and helps it to work more efficiently.

  Why fitness is good for your heart? The answers is that exercise doesn't just strengthen the heart muscle itself, but:

  • it improves the health of your arteries and the rest of your cardiovascular system, too.
  
  
  • it reduces the likelihood that clots will form that might trigger a heart attack.
  
  
  • lowers the blood pressure and increases good cholesterol levels.
  
  
  • keeps blood sugar under control.
  
  
  • increases overall endurance.

  However, that doesn't mean the first thing you should do after your diagnose is to start an intense exercise. Guided by your doctor and an exercise professional, exercise is not only safe, but it's critical to your long-term health.



• Lose Your Weight

The good thing about losing weight is:

• it lowers your risk of congestive heart failure and other heart diseases.


• reduces your hypertension


• raises your good cholesterol or HDL


• lowers your bad cholesterol or LDL.


• reduces your risk of diabetes.


• lowers your blood sugar levels to reverse diabetes.


• reduces the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that might cause congestive heart failure in overweight patients.

As you can see, the simple act of losing excess weight will do all these things. So, if you're overweight, you have an opportunity to help yourself.



• Keep an eye on Your Blood Sugar
  Glucose is a form of sugar - the primary fuel your body runs on. You need to have enough glucose in your bloodstream to remain healthy, but if you have too much it can affect your health.

  The hormone that regulates how much glucose gets absorbed from your blood by the cells is called insulin.

  When the insulin is not succeeding in helping your cells to absorb glucose, the cells become starved for energy and you begin to feel tired, weak, hungry, and irritable.

  At the same time, the sugar level rises in your bloodstream, because it's not getting to the cells anymore. This condition is called diabetes.

  I mention about diabetes, because people with this disorder have an especially high risk of developing congestive heart failure and other heart diseases. In addition, their heart problems tend to be worse than those in people without diabetes.

  So, what should you do in this case?

  The next congestive heart failure treatment would be to control your blood sugar levels. In this way you can prevent yourself from developing diabetes type II.

  The strategies are the same: diet, weigh loss, exercise, and if those are not sufficient, medications. Your family doctor can help you in this situation.

• high blood pressure


• coronary artery disease


• severe lung damage


• excess alcohol


• sleep apnea


• problems with the valves

Most of the time the problem is likely to involve the muscle pump of your heart and your congestive heart failure treatment will be with drugs for heart failure, such as:

• diuretics - these reduce fluid and relieve breathlessness and ankle swelling.


• nitrates - isosorbide mononitrate or dinitrate.


• beta blockers - used to improve symptoms.


• digoxin - used to help control atrial fibrillation.


• statins - used to reduce cholesterol.

The main thing is to take care against increasing the fluid build-up in your body, particularly in your lungs or legs. Therefore:

• try to lose weight


• avoid salty foods


• keep as active as you can


• weight yourself every day to check if you have put on weight which might be due to increased fluid.


• take your medicine prescribed by your doctor.

If your heart muscle is very weak in spite of optimal medical treatment, congestive heart failure surgery - especially transplantation - is the best option available to give you a better quality and length life.

If you find it harder to breathe, your ankles swell, or you feel generally washed out, go and see your doctor. Don't let the fluid build up too much as it alters the absorption of some medications making the congestive heart failure treatment more difficult.

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