What causes Congestive Cardiac Failure?
Do you want to know the causes of Congestive Cardiac Failure?
Most of the time, Congestive Cardiac Failure is caused by underlying diseases. Congestive Cardiac Failure is also known by other names such as heart failure, Congestive Heart Failure etc.
What is Congestive Cardiac Failure?
the heart's job is to pump oxygenated blood throughout the body. This blood reaches all the body parts, and it is because your muscles, skin, and organs have enough oxygen that they are able to function properly. CHF is a chronic progressive condition which affects the pumping power of the heart, i.e. it affects the flow of blood from the heart towards the muscles. CHF refers to the stage where fluids in and around the heart become concentrated, and causes it to function improperly, thus hampering the flow of blood in the body. Though Congestive Cardiac Failure sounds like heart has stopped pumping completely, this is not the case. Congestive Cardiac Failure is a condition wherein your heart is not able to function well. It’s unable to pump as much blood your body needs. There are two types of heart failures, commonly referred to as heart attacks:
Systolic heart failure:
In Systolic heart failure, your heart is not able to pump as much blood as it should.
Diastolic heart failure:
In Diastolic heart failure, your heart muscles are not relaxing well. They are stiff. As a result, less blood is reaching your heart in comparison to a normally functioning heart.
The general process is, the heart pumps oxygenated blood and then immediately relaxes. When your heart relaxes, low-oxygen blood from all over the body reaches your heart.
Does this process happen suddenly or over time?
- It may happen at one go.
- It’s also possible that it begins as a less severe form of heart failure and then gradually progresses to end stage Congestive Cardiac Failure. Thus a regular check-up with your doctor is extremely important.
Common types of CHF:
Just above we read about the types of heart attack that a human body can suffer. But very few people are aware of the fact that congestive heart failure also has its types which are:
- Left sided CHF: it is the most common of the two types of CHFs that is found among people. It occurs when your left ventricle stops working properly and the blood flow from it to the body is not right. As the condition becomes worse, fluid start building up in your lungs and causes uneasiness and hampers your breathing.
- The other type is the right sided CHF: This condition occurs when the right ventricle faces the difficulty in pumping the blood to the lungs. This condition causes the blood to back up in our blood vessels thus causing fluid retention in the lower abdomen, extremities and in other vital organs
It has been observed that a person can suffer from both the left sided CHF and as well as right sided CHF at the same time. But mostly the disease starts from the right side and then travels to the right right as it is left untreated.
2 Most common causes of heart failure:
CHF is quite common problem now a days and is found in a large number of people all over the world. CHF can occur from other health conditions that can affect the activities of your heart directly.
- Coronary artery disease (CAD):
Coronary arteries are the blood vessels that supply the muscles of heart. Any diseases here may impair the muscles in the heart that get blood to flow back to the heart. This is one of the most common reasons of heart failure.
- High blood pressure:
Uncontrolled High blood pressure leads to stiff heart muscles. This eventually leads to weak muscles which are not able to pump the required amount of blood.
Here’s a list of other heart diseases which may cause heart failure:
- Diabetes:
If your blood sugar level is high you are at a higher risk.
- Infections which weaken heart muscles:
Heart muscles need to be very strong for the heart to function at its best capacity. If the muscles get weak, they cannot perform well. This inefficiency leads to heart failure.
- Myocardial infarction/ Heart attack:
Heart attack happens when blood flow to heart muscles is stopped. This leads to the death of heart muscles. This phenomenon is called a heart attack. In such cases, heart is not able to pump the blood with full pressure.
- Leaky/ narrow heart valves:
Heart has 4 chambers. 2 upper and 2 lower. Upper 2 are called as Atria and lower 2 are called as ventricles. There are many valves which facilitate heart’s work. One such valve is in between atrium and ventricle. They are designed to work in a particular manner.
For instance, when the right atrium contracts the valve between right atrium and right ventricle open.
Thus, the right atrium sends the impure blood to right ventricle.
Once this process is done, the valve closes.
Then, right ventricle sens blood to lungs for purification.
During this time the valve in between right atrium and right ventricle is completely closed. If it’s leaky then some blood leaks into right atrium, this is one of the causes of heart failure. If the valve is narrow, then some blood stays in atrium, this again is another cause for heart failure.
- Congenital heart diseases/ Heart diseases since birth/ birth defects
- Arrhythmia/ Abnormal heart rhythms:
Heart beats in a rhythmic fashion that sounds like Lubb-Dub. If the heart beats irregularly, they are called Arrhythmia. Usually heart failure is chronic/ long standing. It develops from less severe heart failure to end stage
- Valve conditions
The flow of the blood in the body is maintained by the valves by letting the blood travel from one place to another by their opening and closing and let the blood in and out of the chambers. But if the valves are not opening and closing properly this may force the heart to work harder in pumping the blood thus causing a defect or infection in the heart.
- Other conditions
While the risk of suffering from CHF is mostly from heart related diseases, but other diseases that are not related directly to heart can also increase the risk of you suffering from CHF like obesity, thyroid disease. Several infections and allergic reactions can also cause CHF.
