Heart Failure is a condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood around the body effectively.
It does not mean that the heart is about to stop, but rather if left untreated, the heart would continue to weaken.
This can lead to symptoms of:
Fatigue
Breathlessness
Water retention
Swelling
Abdominal discomfort
Whilst a heart attack, or high blood pressure are the common causes of heart failure, viruses and toxins (such as excessive amounts of alcohol) are sometimes the cause, although in many cases of heart failure a specific cause cannot be found. Irrespective of the cause, most cases of Heart Failure cannot be cured.
The heart can be assisted by a range of medications that help to control and improve symptoms and increase your life expectancy. Many of these drugs need to be started at very low doses, and increased slowly. Once started, most treatments need to be continued indefinitely.
Other treatments, for severe heart failure that is not responding to medication, include special types of pacemaker and rarely (for specific conditions only) heart transplantation.