According to research, more than 2 million people in our country suffer from heart failure. Death rates due to heart failure are higher than the death rates due to many cancer diseases, especially bowel, breast and prostate cancer.
On the other hand, many types of heart failure are preventable. Even in patients diagnosed with heart failure, untimely deaths can be prevented if correct guidance is given to them to be more informed about the symptoms and to seek medical support accordingly. Therefore, it will first be necessary to have more information about heart failure.
What is Heart Failure?
It would be useful to state as preliminary information that heart failure is not a disease. . Heart failure can be defined as a composite syndrome consisting of symptoms and some physical findings.
Heart failure means that the heart cannot adequately pump blood rich in oxygen and nutrients, which is necessary for the body cells, and therefore weakens. When the heart cannot provide enough oxygen to the tissues to meet their metabolic needs, heart failure occurs and this situation brings with it many health problems.
Heart failure causes many problems such as stenosis in the heart vessels, palpitations, high blood pressure, and heart attack. It can occur for any reason, or it can occur without any reason. Even if all body functions are normal, sudden weakness in the heart muscle can lead to heart failure. This condition is called cardiomyopathy; It is called a heart muscle disorder that causes heart failure. In heart muscle disorder, the heart cavities gradually grow and heart failure occurs. This disease mostly occurs after previous viral infections, even though everything is at normal values when it occurs.
What are the Risk Factors for Heart Failure?
Heart failure is a life-threatening, dangerous dysfunction that is especially common in patients over the age of 65. According to research, one in every five people, regardless of gender, is at risk of developing heart failure. Ge In general, we can list the risk factors that may cause heart failure as follows:
-Coronary heart diseases; Today, it is accepted that the main reason for heart failure is the patient's coronary heart disease. In fact, we can say that heart failure mostly occurs after a heart attack. However, heart failure due to coronary heart diseases can occur without a heart attack.
-High blood pressure (hypertension); High blood pressure in the heart can reach dangerous levels with hypertension and lead to heart failure.
-Side effects of some drugs; Heart failure may occur as a result of the side effects of some cancer drugs in the body.
-Some toxins; Heart failure may occur due to some toxins in cases such as excessive alcohol consumption.
-Some infections; Conditions such as heart muscle inflammation caused by some viruses can cause heart failure.
-Some metabolic causes; Diseases such as diabetes can cause heart failure.
-Obesity; Excessive obesity due to obesity can cause heart failure.
-Heart rhythm disorders; Situations such as having a very fast or very slow heart rate may lead to a predisposition to heart failure and heart failure.
-Kidney failure
-Anemia
-Thyroid Over- or under-functioning of the gland
In addition, some other factors increase the risk of heart diseases:
-Heart valve diseases
-Heart muscle diseases or inflammations.
-Congenital heart diseases
In order to prevent heart failure, early diagnosis and early treatment can be effective in diseases that are among these basic risk factors that cause heart failure.
What are the Symptoms of Heart Failure?
In heart failure diseases, timely diagnosis is important in slowing down the course of the disease. However, most of the symptoms of heart failure do not develop distinctive symptoms and can be overlooked for these reasons.
Most of the symptoms of heart failure occur due to water and salt retention. These are;
-Shortness of breath
-Chest pain and palpitations
-Swelling in the legs and abdomen
-Due to shortness of breath at night Situations such as waking up, inability to breathe increasing in a way that wakes you up from sleep
-Fatigue quickly
-Interrupted breathing
-Situations such as the need to sleep on a high pillow indicate heart failure. but they are not very distinctive symptoms. In this regard, we need to consider the qualities of the symptoms, that is, the extent of their impact on our lives.
For example; People who have never experienced shortness of breath while moving before, such as those who have not been out of breath while climbing stairs, may experience breathlessness when climbing stairs. In the later stages, the person begins to experience shortness of breath while sleeping, that is, while inactive. Shortness of breath can progress from levels that wake you up at night to levels that prevent you from sleeping. In this respect, it would be useful to consult a doctor at the stage when problems begin to occur in our usual movement activities, before we experience breathing problems that prevent us from sleeping at night.
Another important and distinguishable symptom of heart failure is; It is the accumulation of water in the legs, abdomen and lung cavity. This blister can weigh up to 10-15 kilos.
How is Heart Failure Treated?
Treatment of heart failure, prevention of failure. It is applied according to the reason.
First of all; By using diuretic drugs, the burden on the heart is reduced. In heart failure patients, salt retention will occur in the body as kidney functions will deteriorate. Salt retention will cause water retention, and water retention will cause complaints such as heart failure, shortness of breath, and palpitations.
Treatment in heart failure should be directed towards the cause. If the cause is from the heart valves, the heart valves must be intervened with surgery. If the cause of the problem is coronary artery disease, bypass surgery can be very beneficial. If there is a congenital disease, it must be corrected by surgery. In some patients, heart transplantation may become necessary.
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