The left side of your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood from your lungs to your body. The cells of your body extract oxygen and nutrients. Then, the blood collects in the right side of your heart for return to the lungs to get fresh oxygen. The cycle starts over as the oxygen-rich blood goes back to the left side of the heart. Congestive heart failure -- CHF -- develops when the heart becomes too weak to maintain this cycle. Many factors, including lack of exercise, smoking, obesity, other medical conditions and poor nutritional status, influence development and progression of heart failure.
Background and Prevention
Your heart beats more than 100,000 times every day with about the force it takes to squeeze a tennis ball, according to Nova Online. Keeping your heart functioning well requires a lifelong commitment a healthy lifestyle. Poor nutrition contributes to coronary artery disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, the three leading causes of congestive heart failure. Obesity from poor diet and lack of exercise increases the risk of heart disease, as well. If you develop one of these conditions, nutrition becomes even more important to prevent progression to heart failure.
Congestive Heart Failure
The word "congestive" in congestive heart failure refers to a backup of fluid that results from the heart's inability to maintain its pumping function. If the heart cannot pump blood forward to the body, the blood backs up into the lungs, causing congestion, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Fluid in the lungs causes breathing problems and a chronic cough. CHF, especially in the early stages, tends to go through cycles of exacerbation and remission. Control of CHF revolves around avoiding exacerbations by the use of medications and the manipulation of diet and nutrition.
Dietary Recommendations
Since the main risk factors for CHF -- diabetes, coronary artery disease and high blood pressure -- all respond to dietary factors, controlling these predisposing diseases helps control CHF. Follow your doctor's recommendations for carbohydrate and sugar consumption in diabetes. Glucose control, always a mainstay of diabetes treatment, becomes even more important with heart disease. The coronary arteries supply your heart muscle with blood. In coronary artery disease, your coronary arteries have blockages that prevent proper oxygen delivery to the heart, leading to heart attacks and heart failure. If you have coronary artery disease, your nutritional goal centers around preventing further blockages. Focus on low-fat, especially low saturated fat, foods. Include plenty of healthy fruits and vegetables. High blood pressure also puts extra strain on the heart and, if severe or long-standing, can cause the heart to fail. Following a low-sodium diet, with a focus on fruits, whole grains and vegetables, helps control blood pressure and heart failure, as well.
Fluids
In addition to managing underlying disease, the control of CHF symptoms depends, in large part, on manipulating your body's fluid balance. Your doctor will recommend a daily limit for fluid ingestion to prevent exacerbations of CHF. Your nutritional goals with congestive heart failure also include reducing sodium in your diet since extra salt in your diet causes fluid retention and worsens heart failure, according to FamilyDoc.org, a website of the American Academy of Family Physicians
Medication
If you have CHF, you most likely use a diuretic, or water pill, on a daily basis to help control the fluid in your body and keep your blood pressure close to normal. Some common diuretics, such as furosemide, cause potassium loss through your kidneys. Ask your doctor whether or not you take this kind of diuretic and if you need to increase your potassium intake to make up for losses. Medications like digitalis represent a mainstay of CHF therapy. This drug helps your heart beat more strongly. While on this drug, however, your heart becomes more sensitive to changes in electrolytes, specifically potassium, according to "Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Disease." You will have blood tests to measure your potassium level while on digitalis. If your potassium drops, your diet should be adjusted to increase potassium intake, as recommended by your doctor.
Warning
Congestive heart failure is a serious disease, but it can be controlled under the supervision of a doctor. Information on the Internet is for informational purposes only and should never be used to diagnose or treat any symptom or disorder.
References
- NOVA Online: Cut to the Heart: Amazing Heart Facts
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Diseases and Conditions Index: Heart Failure
- FamilyDoctor.org: Congestive Heart Failure: How to Stay Well and Out of the Hospital
- "Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 8th Ed."; Peter Libby, M.D., Editor; 2008
