Let's Talk About Heart Failure

Do you know about the different sides of your heart and the different types of heart failure? Understanding how your heart works and what can damage it can help you stay heart healthy.

At West Houston Heart Center in Houston, Texas, Dr. Humayun Naqvi and his team offer preventative cardiology to help you protect your heart health and reduce chances of advanced heart disease or a cardiovascular event. Let’s talk about heart failure and what you can do to prevent it.

What heart failure actually is

When most people hear the words “heart failure” they think “heart attack.” The two terms aren’t really interchangeable, though. You can have a heart attack because of acute heart failure, but chronic heart failure can cause more complex and subtle problems that worsen over time.

How your heart works

Your heart has two sides, the right and the left. Each side has two chambers, the atrium (top) and the ventricle (bottom).

Oxygenated blood comes from the lungs and enters your heart through the left atrium. The blood passes down to your left ventricle, where it’s pushed out into your body.

Blood returns from the body and enters your right atrium, passing down to the right ventricle. The right ventricle pushes the blood back to the lungs for oxygenation again, and the cycle continues.

Types of heart failure

Heart failure is typically defined by the side(s) of the heart involved. 

Left-sided heart failure

In most cases, the left side of the heart starts to fail first. The muscles weaken (systolic failure) or stiffen (diastolic failure) and reduce the ventricle’s power to push blood out into your body. Some common risk factors for left-sided heart failure include:

• Coronary artery disease
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• Valvular heart disease
• Previous heart attack

Right-sided heart failure

The most common cause of right-sided heart failure is left-sided heart failure. Over time, the strain on the left side of your heart starts to affect the right side. The right ventricle weakens and thickens, and can’t push blood to the lungs quickly enough.

This causes a back-up all through the chain — right ventricle, right atrium, left ventricle, left atrium, lungs. Fluid can start to build up around your lungs and other parts of your body. This can cause the third common type of heart failure.

Congestive heart failure

When blood starts to back up due to left- and right-sided heart failure, it raises your blood pressure and increases strain on your veins. This pushes fluid into tissues around vulnerable veins like those in your lower legs and abdomen, causing swelling (edema).

Congestive heart failure can cause:

• Irregular heartbeat
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Sudden cardiac arrest (heart attack)
• Damage to your heart’s valves
• Kidney or liver damage
• Damaged lungs or even lung collapse

Symptoms of congestive heart failure include shortness of breath, edema, heart palpitations, fatigue, and weight gain (which may be followed by weight loss in later stages of the disease).

When to see a doctor for heart failure

There are four stages of heart failure:

• A — Pre-heart failure (high risk for heart failure based on medical and family history)
• B — Silent heart failure (changes to heart function but no symptoms)
• C — Heart failure (heart failure diagnosed, and there are symptoms)
• D — Advanced heart failure (treatment is failing, and there are symptoms even at rest)

Ideally, you should see a preventative cardiologist like Dr. Naqvi on a regular basis if you’re at stage A. He assesses your risk, advises you on lifestyle changes, and monitors you in case you move to stage B. Rapid action to identify heart failure and appropriate treatment can prevent advancement to stages C or D.

If you want to learn more about heart failure, or schedule an appointment at West Houston Heart Center, call us at 832-400-3957, or request an appointment online.