If your heart can no longer function properly, your doctor will refer to your condition as congestive heart failure. Without the heart’s ability to pump blood where it needs to go through your body, your other organs can suffer. The problem is severe and requires urgent medical attention, but you can manage heart failure symptoms with help from your doctor.
A doctor will determine the cause of heart failure and offer treatments to relieve symptoms. But you may need to adjust your lifestyle in order to avoid worsening your condition. You can still live a high-quality life despite this diagnosis. Read on to learn more about how you can manage your heart failure.
Pay Attention to Your Well-Being
Perhaps in the past, you did not pay attention to your eating habits or your activity levels. But if you have heart failure, you will need to curate healthier behaviors that will relieve stress and pressure on the heart so that it can better function as it needs to.
You should ensure that your diet is balanced and nutritious. Consume plenty of fruits and vegetables along with healthy amounts of other important food groups. Your cardiovascular doctor will let you know details about which foods and beverages can improve or worsen your condition.
You will also need to exercise on a routine basis. Physical activity encourages better blood circulation throughout the body. And this will lead to less strain on your heart, preventing worsening symptoms of heart failure. A doctor can work with you to determine a healthy level of exercise based on your abilities and medical needs.
Avoid Risky Behaviors
As you begin to focus on healthy habits, you will also need to limit or avoid other behaviors that could pose a serious threat to your cardiovascular health if you have heart failure. For instance, in regard to your diet, you will need to consume less salt, which will lead to fluid retention.
Excess fluid can cause high blood pressure, which can prove dangerous for people with high blood pressure. So for similar reasons, these patients should also avoid processed foods, which use a lot of sodium as a preservative.
Alcohol and tobacco will also strain your cardiovascular system in many ways, so you will need to stop using these items to manage heart failure. Chronic illnesses can make the body vulnerable to other diseases, so you should stay up to date on vaccinations to ensure you do not fall ill while dealing with heart failure.
Attend Regular Heart Check-Ups
Even when you make these at-home efforts to care for your heart health, you still need to attend follow-up appointments with your cardiovascular specialist to ensure you stay healthy if you have heart failure. Your doctor will monitor your symptoms using precise diagnostic tools to check that your heart continues functioning as it should.
The doctor will prescribe medicine as needed and intervene if the heart requires additional treatment. Make sure you call your doctor about any changes in your symptoms and do not skip these routine appointments.