A chill runs down our spine whenever we hear the term heart failure. However, not all kinds of heart failure are the same. For example, if you see someone in your family getting diagnosed with systolic heart failure (which I am assuming is the purpose of looking it up), it is not a complete heart failure.
Disclaimer: Before we begin with our article, we would like to give a fair disclaimer. We are not medical professionals in cardiology. This is based on intensive pure research. We are helpers here trying to assist people in understanding medical subjects better. This will help them fear these conditions less and know what to do. After all, you do not need to understand every blood vessel and nerve of your body to know that something might be wrong, and you need to see a professional. Plus, it could never be too late to be healthy.
Keeping that in mind, we are bringing you an overall dummy’s guide to understanding Systolic heart failure.
What does that mean in layman’s terms?
The overall symptoms that you could be facing.
What are the different stages of heart failure?
Are you contributing to worsening the condition?
What can you do, and when should you look for a professional?
Most importantly, what can a professional do?
Therefore, if big names describing certain conditions scare you, hopefully, you will get an answer in the excerpt below.
What Is Systolic Heart Failure – A Dummy’s Guide To Understanding The Condition
The heart is divided into four parts:
- Right Atrium.
- Left Atrium.
- Right Ventricle.
- Left Ventricle.
Now, systolic heart failure occurs when your left ventricle enlarges. This portion of your heart already pumps most of the oxygen to the brain.
As contrary to right-sided heart failure.
Due to the enlargement, the constant contraction of our heart, which essentially helps the blood-pumping process, falters.
Therefore, it is not a complete heart failure but a portion of the heart that has lost its functionality. This functionality is called ejection fraction, the blood pumping rate of your left atrium.
For a healthy heart, the rate is close to 55-70.
If your ejection fraction slightly reduces, the rate could be 40-49%.
With partial heart failure like systolic heart failure, your ejection fraction might be less than 40%.
What Causes This Heart Condition
Now that you understand a simplified form of the condition, these are some causes of systolic heart failure.
Before we begin, data shows that this condition affects people over 75. However, in some cases, systolic heart failure can be seen in patients aged 55-61.
It is a form of chronic heart failure, and here are the different causes for it.
Hypertension
Hypertension is a persistent medical state that defines high blood pressure. Blood pressure is important to blood circulation because high pressure causes extra work for the heart. As a result of this effort, it fails in its basic functions.
Ischemic Heart Disease
Ischemic heart disease occurs when there is poor blood supply to the heart because of narrow or blocked arteries. When this happens, a section of the heart muscle does not receive adequate oxygen-rich blood flow and eventually dies. This results in Systolic heart failure and other severe medical issues such as arrhythmia or stroke.
Another significant risk factor for the development of systolic heart failure is diabetes. Diabetes can lead to injury in large and small vessels related to blood supply into the cardiac muscle tissue. This activity in your body is necessary for normal functioning.
Diabetes also increases circulating hormone levels, such as insulin. This insulin can cause edema or fluid retention around the body’s cells – hence, it induces cardiovascular strain and makes one susceptible to this condition.
Obesity
Systolic Heart Failure is one of the many complications that obesity can cause. Cortisol and other hormones increase with obesity and strain the cardiovascular system.
Over time, that leads to diseases such as hypertension or diabetes, the well-known instigators of systolic heart failure.
Also, when an individual is obese, there might be increased pressure on the lungs, inducing symptoms related to difficult breathing (which could also be a symptom of diastolic heart failure). This can also increase the likelihood of pulmonary complications that may lead to the development of systemic heart failure.
Drug Toxicity
Some cases of systolic heart failure can arise due to drug toxicity. This is to say drug toxicity doesn’t always come from intervenors’ drug usage. At times, these are related to medications like certain chemodrugs, which can lead to cardiac muscle damage. Moreover, over time, use in larger doses can cause even more damage.
Symptoms You Should Look Out For Systolic Heart Failure
Now that you know the causes, there is no need to fear the condition. Now, it is time to check if you have symptoms of systolic heart failure.
Systolic heart failure is a severe condition that arises due to muscular weakness or damage in heart muscles, and thus, it becomes difficult for one’s heart to pump blood effectively.
It is common for those with this kind of heart failure to present diverse symptoms like:
- Short breath.
- Lethargy.
- Swelling in the extremities and dysrhythmia.
- Other common symptoms include chest pains, dizziness or lightheadedness, and nausea with vomiting.
- Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most prevalent symptom of Systolic Heart Failure; CAD occurs when fatty deposits called plaque block the arteries. They clog the arteries, making them less stretchy and unable to deliver sufficient oxygenated blood to sustain a normal heart function.
Are You Contributing to This?
Patients suffering from Systolic Heart Failure should understand the risks involved in taking control of their lifestyle.
When risks may include stroke, heart attack, and other life-threatening complications, lack of management can worsen it.
Because of its dynamic nature, it requires constant follow-up from your doctor to monitor your health.
Plus, relevant changes in lifestyle or medications were necessary.
Though there are a variety of risk factors for systolic heart failure, it is your lifestyle that can also cause this condition.
Some lifestyle decisions which may increase the risk of developing SHF are:
Inadequate Diet
A poor choice is an inadequate diet. Eating food rich in saturated fats and refined carbohydrates disrupts one’s cardiovascular system. These diseases are hypercholesterolemia and hypertension, among others – leading to a high chance for the development of SHF.
Smoking
Smoking increases the chances of getting coronary artery disease and other cardiovascular complications that raise one’s risk of SHF.
Physical Activity (Too Little or Too Much)
Physical activity is another significant lifestyle decision that may determine the individual’s risk for SHF. Your chances of heart failure increase with the lack of physical activity. This is because regular exercises keep weight in check.
However, there is something called too much of a good thing!
On the contrary, exercising or overtraining increases one’s risk of SHF because it strains cardiac muscle tissue.
Heavy Alcohol Consumption
Lastly, heavy alcohol consumption could also increase the risk of systolic heart failure. Extreme levels of drinking damage human cardiac muscle tissue over time, and this leads to decreasing performance of the heart.
Alcohol also has other negative effects on the body, which increase triglycerides and introduce inflammation that leads to an increased risk of SHF.
Lifestyle decisions play a role in one’s susceptibility to systolic heart failure. There might not be a direct effect. However, given that they can lead individuals into developing conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, they make them prone to such conditions.
Therefore, if you plan for the “prevention better than cure route.” There are a few things to keep in mind. This includes healthy life options, which include a low saturated fat diet, moderate alcohol intake, and completely avoiding smoking. Plus, indulge in exercise when necessary.
What Expert’s Can Do
Now that you know the causes and how you are contributing to this certain condition, it is time to find safe treatment options.
We mention the term safe because of all the holistic DIY treatment options that the internet is currently coming up with!
There are certain conditions where holistic healing can help heal your mind, body, and soul after medical treatment. Yes, we put pressure on the term “after.” After all, doing thirty minutes of yoga is not ideal for treating such a condition.
If the abovementioned symptoms and causes are looking too familiar, it is time for you to get help from an expert.
Diagnosis
Remember, understanding just the symptoms is not enough. Doctors are the right people to make a proper medical diagnosis. Here are some of the tests you might have to take. Therefore, if you have any medical issues, let the doctors know beforehand.
- X-Ray: The test begins with a simple X-ray of your test.
- Coronary CT scan: This is an imaging test that shows the coronary arteries of your heart.
- Blood Test: This test shows the BNP in your blood. A high level of BNP indicates an inching toward Systolic Heart Failure.
- Cardiac MRI Scan: Magnetic Resonance Imaging helps determine the function of cardiovascular disease.
- Electrocardiogram: This test checks the electrical signal of the heart to detect different heart conditions. An abnormal ECG will show abnormal ratings when one detects Systolic Heart Failure.
- Other than these popular ones, other tests include Holter or Event Monitor, Stress test, and Coronary angiography.
Treatment Options
Treatment options for systolic heart failure are almost always prescribed. Alongside these, lifestyle changes can also help the changes.
Prescribed medicines
The prescribed medicines that can help are as follows:
- Beta Blockers can slow the heart rate, which can also help with hypertension since it is one of the catalysts of SHF.
- Hydralazine & Nitrate which work together to ease the blood vessel functions. These help open the blood vessels and improve pumping.
- Diuretics are a form of water pills that can decrease the swelling of the left ventricle.
- Digoxin is the opposite of Beta-blockers in terms of function. It is for when one suffers from Hypotension due to Systolic heart failure. This agent makes your heart beat harder and prevents heart failure symptoms.
What can be mistaken for systolic heart failure?
There is a reason why we warn every reader not to take this information at face value and go to a doctor.
You can misjudge other health conditions, such as systolic heart failure.
Chronic Kidney Disease Mimicking Heart Failure
Chronic kidney disease can mimic heart failure as both conditions lead to edema or water accumulation in the legs and feet. Similarly, both diseases can precipitate fluid accumulation in the lungs, leading to shortness of breath.
Both diseases have the same symptoms, such as fatigue and weakness. Santi Yarlagadda, M.D., a cardiologist at National Jewish Health in Denver, CO, says worsening kidney disease can often mimic heart failure, especially when one has general malaise. If you notice fluid accumulation in some parts of their body, it might not be SHL.
Lung problems lead to shortness of breath.
Lung disease can deceive your doctor into thinking you have heart failure. Dr. Grazette receives numerous patient referrals from other physicians for patients having shortness of breath and is diagnosed. This could be COPD or some type of interstitial lung disease. Yes, both conditions lead to breathing problems.
Some possible causes for these conditions include reflux disease, which leads to reverse flow into the lungs from acidic materials in the stomach. As Dr. Grazette notes, “People with reflux, especially at night develop lung inflammation that ends up in scarring; and patients often feel short of air frequently.”
TTR-CM can lead to heart failure
ATTR-CM, also called Transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, presents as heart dysfunction because of a disturbance in liver protein production. This makes the protein degrade and deposit in the heart, causing its malfunction.
Although ATTR-CM eventually leads to heart failure, this disease demands specific treatment. Yet, because of its scarcity, it is usually not considered a possible cause.
Dr. Yarlagadda says the mind concentrates on prevalent factors such as coronary artery disease or arrhythmia.
Prevention Is Better Than Cure
There is no better way to conclude this excerpt on systolic heart failure than mentioning what is in your control.
After all, on a greater scale, we want to look at the bigger picture. The picture here can stop this condition from arising.
So, we will discuss what is in your control and how you can prevent this before thinking about the cure.
- Firstly, limit the consumption of toxic elements like alcohol and smoking tobacco. These are some of the biggest catalysts for any form of heart failure.
- Speaking of moderation, you should also start cutting down on food with high amounts of salt & fat.
- If stress is a bother, it is time to stand against it. Begin with regular therapy, holistic healing methods, and, most importantly, sleep and rest.
- Exercising is okay, but do not be too hard on yourself. Maintaining the right body and weight ratio is important. This depends on your height, age, and bone density.
- Lastly, always opt for a healthy, nutritious, balanced diet. Enjoying your every meal will prevent you from frequently reaching out for junk food.
Hopefully, this article was able to make an impact on your decision-making regarding systolic heart failure. If the symptoms seem too close to home, mixed with your lifestyle choices, then book an appointment with a cardiologist soon. This will help you determine whether you have the condition and rule out other possibilities.