Living with Heart Failure: These lifestyle changes can help
Following a heart healthy diet is a very important part of managing heart failure. In fact, not having a proper diet can make heart failure worse. Talk with our doctor and health care team to create an eating plan that works for you.
A heart healthy diet includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It also includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, and fat-free or low-fat milk or milk products. A healthy diet is low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium (salt) and added sugar.
Your doctor will probably recommend that you follow a diet low in salt because salt can cause extra fluid to build up in your body, making heart failure worse.
Watch Fluid Intake
Drinking too much fluid can worsen heart failure, so it’s important for people who have heart failure to drink the correct amounts and types of fluid. Talk with your doctor about what amounts and types of fluid you should have each day.
Weigh yourself every day, and let your doctor know right away if you have sudden weight gain. This could mean extra fluid is building up. Also, if you have heart failure, you shouldn’t drink alcohol.
Control Risk Factors
Taking steps to control risk factors for coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes will help control heart failure. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, work with your health care team to control these conditions. Have your blood sugar level and blood pressure checked. Talk with your doctor about when you should have tests and how often to take measurements at home.
Other steps you can take
- Lose weight if you’re overweight or obese. Work with your health care team to lose weight safely.
- Do physical activity as your doctor directs to become more fit and stay as active as possible. For information about exercise and physical activity for older adults.
- Quit smoking and avoid using illegal drugs. Talk with your doctor about programs and products that can help you quit smoking. Also, try to avoid secondhand smoke. Smoking and drugs can worsen heart failure and harm your health. For help to quit smoking, visit Smokefree.gov or call toll-free, 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669).
- Get enough rest.
Care for Advanced Stages
As heart failure worsens, lifestyle changes and medicines may no longer control your symptoms. You may need a medical procedure or surgery.
Signs to Watch Out For
You should watch for signs that heart failure is getting worse. For example, weight gain may mean that fluids are building up in your body. Ask your doctor how often you should check your weight and when to report weight changes.
Oxygen Therapy
Many people who have severe heart failure may need treatment in a hospital from time to time. Your doctor may recommend oxygen therapy (oxygen given through nasal prongs or a mask). Oxygen therapy can be given in a hospital or at home.
People with heart failure should try to avoid respiratory infections like pneumonia and the flu. Ask your doctor about getting vaccinated against pneumonia and influenza. Your doctor may also order extra oxygen if you have trouble breathing. The oxygen can be used in your home or in the hospital.
Implantable Devices
If you have heart damage and severe heart failure symptoms, your doctor might recommend a cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) device or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).
In heart failure, the right and left sides of the heart may no longer contract at the same time. This disrupts the heart’s pumping. To correct this problem, your doctor might implant a CRT device (a type of pacemaker) near your heart.
This device helps both sides of your heart contract at the same time, which can decrease heart failure symptoms.
Some people who have heart failure have very rapid, irregular heartbeats. Without treatment, these heartbeats can cause sudden cardiac arrest. Your doctor might implant an ICD near your heart to solve this problem. An ICD checks your heart rate and uses electrical pulses to correct irregular heart rhythms.
If Symptoms Are More Severe
- People who have severe heart failure symptoms at rest, despite other treatments, may need:
- A mechanical heart pump, such as a left ventricular assist device. This device helps pump blood from the heart to the rest of the body. You may use a heart pump until you have surgery or as a long-term treatment.
- A heart transplant. A heart transplant is an operation in which a person’s diseased heart is replaced with a healthy heart from a deceased donor. Heart transplants are done as a life-saving measure for end-stage heart failure when medical treatment and less drastic surgery have failed.
- Experimental treatments. Studies are under way to find new and better ways to treat heart failure.
Source: National Institutes of Health