Heart Failure: Symptoms, Causes and Risks

By EmpowHER

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Heart failure (congestive heart failure), is a condition whereby the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the body. Typically a chronic, long-term condition but in some people it can happen suddenly.

Those with heart failure may notice breathing problems and other symptoms even when resting.

Systolic heart failure happens when your heart muscle cannot pump blood efficiently. Diastolic heart failure is when your heart muscles are stiff and do not fill up with blood easily.

Heart failure may affect only one side of the heart. More often, both sides of the heart are involved.

The most common cause of heart failure is coronary artery disease (CAD), a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. Heart failure can also occur when an infection weakens the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy). Diseases such as emphysema, severe anemia, hyperthyroidism, or hypothyroidism are also possible causes.