Raghunandan Dudda Subramanya, MD, FACC, FASNC

"Weaker heart" is unclear to me. If you meant weaker functioning, that is low heart muscle contractile functioning such as cardiomyopathy, heart failure etc, then you must be on low salt and fluid restricted diet. If this is the condition you are referring to, you must be on certain medications including beta-blocker, ACE inhibitor, or ARB category drugs, etc. Please confirm with your doctor. Also, cardiac rehabilitation will help, which consists of graded exercise programs.

In general, moderately vigorous activity of 150 min per week is recommended, divided to convenience. If this is a general question about heart healthy food, then you must have a low salt diet, foods low in fat especially saturated fats is what you are looking for. Also, abundance of fiber in diet, and fresh vegetables and fruits with plenty of antioxidants are good. Smoking is severely injurious to the heart and several other parts of body. Certainly cessation is advised.

Cachexia is a term used to represent any body wasting disorder with failure to thrive, loss of body muscle and fat. When it is caused by a cardiovascular cause, it is termed cardiac cachexia, which usually from heart failure or chronic illness. Mortality/fatality depends on what is causing cachexia. In general, cachexia is itself a slow body wasting away.

You need an ECG for accurate diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. It is an irregularly irregular rhythm with absence of what’s called “P-wave” on an ECG.

-Ask what your goal BP is supposed to be.
-Ask about BP recording at home by yourself.
-Ask about 24-hr ambulatory BP monitoring. If BP is high only in circumstances such as at doctors office, you may not need medications. But 24-hr ambulatory check will help diagnose that.
-Ask about diet, salt intake, and exercise lifestyle.
-If any medications are required, go over side effects. Any lab tests required, too.