How Is Heart Failure Treated?

The goals of treatment are to:

• Treat the underlying cause of your heart failure
• Improve your symptoms and quality of life
• Stop your heart failure from getting worse
• Prolong your life span

Your doctor will continue to treat the underlying diseases or conditions (such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes) that caused heart failure. The treatment for heart failure includes:

• Lifestyle changes
• Medicines
• Specialized care for those in the most advanced stage of heart failure

Lifestyle Changes

There are things that you can do to help with your treatment. Your doctor will recommend that you:

• Follow a diet low in salt. Salt can cause extra fluid to build up in your body, making your heart failure worse.
• Limit the amount of fluids that you drink.
• Weigh yourself every day, and let your doctor know right away if you have a sudden weight gain. This could mean you have extra fluid building up in your body.
• Exercise as directed to help build your fitness level and ability to be more active.

Your doctor will also tell you to:

• Lose weight if you are overweight.
• Quit smoking if you smoke.
• Limit the amount of alcohol that you drink.

Medicines

Your doctor will prescribe medicines to help improve your heart function and symptoms. The main medicines are:

• Diuretics (water or fluid pills) to help reduce fluid buildup in your lungs and swelling in your feet and ankles.
• ACE inhibitors to lower blood pressure and reduce the strain on your heart. These medicines also may reduce the risk of a future heart attack.
• Beta blockers to slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure to decrease the workload on your heart.
• Digoxin to make the heart beat stronger and pump more blood.

Specialized Care for Severe Heart Failure

As heart failure progresses, lifestyle changes and regular medicines may not be enough to control worsening symptoms. Many people with severe heart failure must be treated in the hospital from time to time. In the hospital, your doctor may prescribe new or special medicines. You will continue to take your regular medicines during this treatment.

Your doctor will also order extra oxygen if you continue to have trouble breathing. The extra oxygen can be given in the hospital and at home.

Persons with very severe heart failure may be considered for a:

• Mechanical heart pump
• Heart transplant

A mechanical heart pump is a special device placed inside the body to help pump blood to the rest of the body. There are different kinds of mechanical heart pumps. Some stay in the body for a short period of time, while others can stay in the body for a long time. Many people with a mechanical heart pump will also be considered for a heart transplant.

A heart transplant is surgery to replace a heart failure patient’s heart with a healthy heart from someone who has recently died. A transplant is indicated in some people when all other treatments fail to control symptoms.