Here is some advice that should help you help your loved one with heart failure.
(Stress cardiomyopathyis one condition that produces severe heart failure, but is often completely reversible.)
These various cardiac disorders can produce different types of heart failure.
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These different types of heart failure are often treated differently.
So it is important for doctors to accurately diagnose what is causing heart failure to tailor appropriate therapy.
First, heart failure can cause the blood that is returning to the heart to back up.
This is often accompanied by symptoms like coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath (dyspnea).
For a person with heart failure, lifestyle issues are even more important.
Good lifestyle choices are not merely preventive for somebody with heart failurethey constitute actual heart failure therapy.
These lifestyle changes should include diet, exercise, and not smoking.
Even more importantly, use caution with canned, processed, smoked, and pickled foods.
Keep in mind that people with heart failure will often become fatigued more easily than you might expect.
Plan your activities with this person accordingly.
At the same time, exercise is important for a person with heart failure.
So encourage whatever amount of exercise your loved one is capable of performing without excessive fatigue or dyspnea.
You and your loved one should ask the doctor whether anexercise rehabilitation programwould be helpful in getting them started.
Most often, it is.
But sometimes, merely taking it easy for a day or so is not enough.
Each day, ask them how they slept last night.
Did they feel short of breath when they laid down for the night?
Did they wake up during the night feeling short of breath?
Observe how breathless they appear as they move around, or as they speak.
Recording these things daily will help you to spot trends over time.
There are two general times when you should seek medical help for your loved one.
You should never be hesitant about calling 911 unnecessarily.
If you are worried or concerned, call.
Second, call the doctor if you notice a trend over time that seems troubling.
If you become sick, frustrated, orburned out, nobody wins.
Start out by assessing your own support system.
What family members and friends are able and willing to pitch in?
Identify them, and let them help.
So dont let it become all-consuming.
In general, they should be encouraged to do such activities.
And they usually do not need 24/7 monitoring.
Get enough sleep, get your exercise, and eat a good diet.
American Heart Association.Heart attack recovery FAQs.
American Heart Association.Heart failure signs and symptoms.
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doi:10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.115.002922
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.Heart failure: Symptoms.
2012;164(2):236-242. doi:10.1016/j.ahj.2012.05.013
