About 1 to 2 percent of the adult population suffers from heart failure. Among people over 70, the rate is more than 10 percent. One in six patients over the age of 65 who present to a primary health center with shortness of breath have heart failure.
What will be the lifestyle of heart disease sufferers?
- A healthy lifestyle is essential for heart failure patients. If you have diabetes, you must follow a diabetic diet. Diabetes should keep under control.
- If you have the habit of smoking, drinking, you should quit. Smokers are three times more likely to develop heart failure than non-smokers.
- Heart failure patients have to drink water in moderation, it reduces the extra pressure on the heart. Those suffering from chronic heart failure should not consume more than one and a half to two liters of water daily.
- Excess salt should avoid in food. Foods rich in excess salt, such as processed meats, pickles, cheese, sauces, soy sauce, salted chanachur or nuts, should also eat less.
- Make it a habit to exercise as much as possible every day. How much exercise you can do, you need to know from the doctor.
- If you are not use to exercise at all, you should practice walking for a few minutes in the beginning. This walk should increas to five-seven minutes every day. In this way, you should get use to walking for at least half an hour every day within a month.
- Even if a ring is install in the blood vessels or a bypass operation is do, exercise or walk should do according to the same rules.
To exercise or not to exercise?
What caused the heart failure, exercise is also very important. If the cause is heart valve disease, congenital heart disease, or an irregular heartbeat, most exercise or physical exertion cannot done.
Do not exercise if you have a history of fainting during exercise. The patient should exercise or walk as long as there is no shortness of breath, no pressure or pain in the chest or palpitations. Don’t lose heart. Courage and self-confidence are very necessary to stay healthy with heart disease. Keep yourself stress free.
Regular doctor’s advice
Regular follow-up of patients with heart failure is important. Checkup and prescription should fix as per the advice given by the doctor. Follow-up should be as close to the patient’s location as possible. It is not always necessary to consult a specialist doctor or go to a specialized hospital for follow-up. Rather, you can go to the nearest local doctor and local hospital for follow-up. However, in case of any emergency, the patient should take to a specialized hospital. Some specialized hospitals now have separate heart failure clinics.
The outcome of heart failure treatment depends on the cause of heart failure. It is very good if you can diagnose the cause and eliminate it completely with specific treatment. However, in case of heart attack and cardiomyopathy, the treatment needs to continue for life. Again, heart failure in stress cardiomyopathy and pregnancy cardiomyopathy usually gets better with treatment. However, these two types of heart failure are very rare.
The ultimate treatment for heart failure is heart transplantation. It is very difficult to find a heart donor with all the qualifications. Heart transplantation has not yet started in our country.
Some suggestions
Regular medication is essential for heart failure patients. A doctor should consult in case of changing or increasing the dose of any medicine.
If any other medicine is need for any disease other than heart disease, consult a doctor. Painkillers and steroid-like drugs can worsen the symptoms of heart failure. Be careful about this.
Anemia increases heart failure. Therefore, care must take whether anemia is occurring in any way. Anemia should treat.
Thyroid problems are dangerous for heart failure. Those who have thyroid disease should not neglect their treatment.
Diabetes should keep under control. Diabetics are less susceptible to bacterial infections. And any bacterial infection can increase heart failure.
Patients with heart failure should admit to the hospital immediately if they have sudden breathing difficulties.
