Causes of heart failure

Causes of Heart Failure

Our heart weakens while we age and that is a normal thing but if the heart is forced to work too hard or becomes damaged it could provoke heart failure. Stress and some other health issues are mainly responsible for this illness.

The unhealthy everyday life increases the risks of heart failure. That’s why doctors recommend healthy low fat diets, exercising, quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy weight. This regime helps you to be healthier and avoid stroke, heart attack, or heart failure.

Heart Failure Risk Factors

Atherosclerosis (or coronary artery disease) affects blood vessels that bring blood to the heart. Cholesterol and fat can obstruct the blood vessels, causing the decreased flow of blood to the heart. This condition might lead to hypertension (high blood pressure), angina, heat failure or heart attack.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a condition that must be treated. If not, it could significantly increase the risk of heart failure. High pressure in the blood vessels makes the heart (as the pump) to pump stronger than normal to ensure that blood is circulating. When this happens during long periods of time it harms the heart and provokes heart failure.

Diabetes could lead to hypertension and increase the levels of lipids in the blood, and those factors are known to be associated with heart failure.

If you already had a heart attack it could be the reason of heart failure. Heart attack means that at that time your heart didn’t get enough blood to feed it with oxygen. The part of the hearts’ muscles died and thus the heart damaged, so now your heart fails to pump enough blood because of the damage.

Abnormal heart valves don’t open and close totally during the heartbeat, which lead the heart to work with difficulties. Sometimes, heart is not strong enough and can’t handle the work. In those cases it is possible to develop a heart failure. This condition may be congenital (present since the birth), or appear after the infection or some other heart illnesses. Congenital heart problems usually include under-development of the heart. Some parts of the heart haven’t developed and it forces the “mature” parts to compensate and work harder.

Also, any other disease that affects the heart increases the risk of possible heart failure. It includes inflammation of the heart (myocarditis), heart muscle problems (cardiomyopathies), viral infections and abuse of alcohol and drugs. Also, there are patients suffering from the heart failure which don’t have any of these risk factors. The exact reason for their heart failure is unknown.

The later stages of lung diseases cause the lack of oxygen and might lead to heart failure, too.

Rarer Causes of Heart Failure

Some illnesses rarely affect the heart, leading to temporary heart failure. These include: cases of serious anemia, arrhythmias and hyperthyroidism (over-activity of the thyroid gland). Symptoms of the heart failure improve once the main issue, the disorder is completely healed.