Congestive heart disease is a yet another disease that affects the important organ of our body namely heart. This type of heart disease is less known and to understand more about the disease, read on.
Definition
A person is said to be suffering from congestive heart disease when the heart loses its ability to pump blood into the body stream. It is a condition where in the heart slows down in its pumping function but continue to work at a lesser rate.
Due to lesser pumping of blood, your body will not get enough oxygenated blood and that will result in a poor overall health. Further, the heart muscles will also receive less blood there by leading to poor coronary muscle health that leading to a vicious cycle of poor heart health.
As the effects of the congestive heart disease progress, it will have a cyclic effect and the kidneys will also become more inefficient in removing the salt and water wastes; this in turn will lead to fluid build up within lungs or other body areas resulting in congestion and complications; hence the name congestive heart disease.
Various Symptoms
The severity of symptoms is normally directly related to the severity of the congestive heart disease in a person and one can understand the heart s condition based on the symptoms exhibited. The disease will have a direct impact on the lungs and hence there will be gasping or shortness of breath due to congestion in lungs. This particular symptom will be more pronounced during exercise and normally would be associated with either dry cough or wheezing sound.
Congestive heart disease is also known to affect kidneys and hence the proper functioning of kidneys will take a beating leading to fluid retention in various parts of body including ankles and lower legs. Further, due to lesser blood circulation the patient will feel fatigued very often for no valid reasons.
There will be an increased heart rate in congestive heart disease cases, as the heart will try to pump in more blood to compensate. However, the pumped blood will continue to be below normal levels.
Possible Causes
When it comes to causes that result in congestive heart disease there are many causes and coronary artery disease is one among them. Your heart being an organ needs blood for its functioning and the coronary arteries fulfill this need.
Due to certain blocks or fat plaque build up within this coronary artery, the artery will lose its ability to supply blood to heart muscles and this will lead to heart attack. Further, due to lesser supply of blood, the heart muscles will also lose its efficiency and this may lead to congestive heart disease.
Drug and alcohol use and abuse can also lead to congestive heart disease in a person as such habits have a potential to damage the heart muscles permanently. There is also a possibility of a person s heart muscle getting damaged due to certain infection.
The modern age disease of hypertension can also trigger congestive heart disease in a person. The high blood pressure will make the heart to work harder and there by weaken the heart muscles well before its stipulated time.
[tags]Congestive Heart Disease, Muscle Weakness[/tags]