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Treatments for heart failure

While damage to the heart cannot be repaired, heart failure treatment can help to keep the condition under control. If you’ve been diagnosed with heart failure you will need regular check ups from every six months to every two weeks, depending on how stable your condition is. In addition you can also monitor your own symptoms and alert your doctor to any changes.³

Lifestyle Changes

By making adjustments and living a healthier lifestyle you can help your heart to pump more efficiently, thereby improving the length and quality of your life and slowing down the condition’s progression.⁴ Some guidelines for a healthy lifestyle include:

• Stopping smoking
• Eating less salt
• Drinking alcohol in moderation
• Taking regular exercise
• Eating a balanced diet that is low in saturated fats
• Immunising against flu and other infections
• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Watching the amount of fluid you drink each day. If your heart is weakened, drinking a lot of fluid can make it harder for the heart to pump blood. People with severe symptoms are often advised to limit their fluid intake

Drug treatment

As well as lifestyle changes, heart failure can be treated with medication. The most common drug groups used to treat heart failure are:

• Diuretics: These are the most common heart failure medicines. Diuretics act by reducing the amount of fluid in the body by helping to remove water and salt from the kidneys. They therefore help to relieve ankle swelling and breathlessness, and also help to lower your blood pressure. The three most common types of diuretics are loop diuretics, thiazide diuretics, and potassium-sparing diuretics.⁴
• ACE inhibitors: Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors help the heart to pump more blood around the body by relaxing the arteries.⁴
• Beta-blockers: These are usually prescribed after you’ve started with a diuretic and ACE inhibitor drug. Although they’re a common drug used in treating heart failure they are not suitable for people with asthma.^{3, 4}
• Anticoagulants: These thin the blood and help prevent blood clots from forming. They may be prescribed in order to lower your risk of having a stroke as a result of your heart failure condition.³
• Antiplatelet medicines: Since you’re at an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack if you have heart failure, antiplatelet medicines are sometimes prescribed to stop blood platelets from forming clots in your blood.

Surgery

Sometimes, heart failure cannot be treated with medication. In these cases devices such as pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, and LVADs (left ventricular assist devices) can be implanted in the body to stimulate a regular, strong heartbeat. The implanting of these devices is done through surgery.⁴

If you have severe heart failure, a heart transplant may be an option. However, this operation is highly dependent on individual circumstances, as well as whether a suitable donor heart is available.⁴

Disease Information

• Angina
• Depression
• Diabetes (Type 2)
• Heart Attacks
• Heart Failure
• High Blood Pressure
• Osteoporosis (Postmenopausal)
• Stroke