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Heart failure, or congestive heart failure, occurs when your heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs. While the condition can’t be cured, there are many heart failure treatment options available. The option your doctor recommends will be based on how severe your condition is.
Your heart failure treatment plan will aim to:
- Improve your quality of life and help you live longer.
- Prevent your condition from getting worse.
- Reduce your symptoms.
- Treat the underlying cause, such as coronary artery disease (heart disease), high blood pressure, or diabetes.
When it comes to treatment for congestive heart failure, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Your plan may contain several different parts including:
- Lifestyle changes
- Medications
- Surgery
Heart failure treatment starts with lifestyle changes.
One of the most important lifestyle changes you’ll make is eating a heart-healthy diet. This type of diet focuses on foods with nutrients that help your heart work better. These include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, lean meats, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, and beans.
You’ll also have to cut back on foods that can damage your heart even more, such as sodium, added sugars, saturated fats, and trans fatty acids. If you have any questions about what you’re eating, be sure to ask your doctor how a food may affect your heart. A registered dietitian can also help you with the best food choices.
Other important lifestyle changes that can help you manage heart failure include:
- Avoiding alcohol
- Getting enough rest
- Increasing your physical activity
- Losing weight if you’re overweight or obese
- Quitting smoking
Team up with your doctor to identify the lifestyle changes that are most important for you and discuss how you can best achieve them.
Your treatment for heart failure may involve medications.
There are many different medications to help manage heart failure. Your doctor will consider the severity of your disease, the type of heart failure you have, and how your body responds to different medications.
Some of the medications frequently used to treat heart failure include the following:
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ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, and angiotensin receptor blockers are medications that lower your blood pressure to reduce the strain on your heart.
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Aldosterone antagonists lower the volume of blood your heart needs to pump by telling your body to remove salt and water through your urine.
- Digoxin helps your heart beat stronger.
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Diuretics, also known as water pills, help reduce fluid buildup in your body so your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.
In a major breakthrough for people with heart failure, the FDA recently approved a new medication, called LCZ696 (Entresto). The drug is designed to decrease the strain on your heart. Patients with heart failure who took Entresto had a 20% lower risk of death compared to those prescribed a popular ACE inhibitor in a study of 8,442 participants.Discuss with your doctor which of these medications may work best for your condition.
Surgery is sometimes necessary to treat heart failure.
If lifestyle changes and medications aren’t enough to improve your condition, you may need a surgical procedure. Some surgeries that can help heart failure patients include:
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Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a small device that’s implanted near your heart. It detects irregular heartbeats and sends an electrical shock to correct them.
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Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), a pacemaker-like device that helps both sides of your heart contract at the same time.
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Left ventricular assist device, which helps pump blood from your heart to your body
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Heart transplants, which may be the only life-saving option remaining when other treatment options have failed.
