Pay Attention to Your Heart Health ❤️

February 13-19, 2022 is Heart Failure Awareness Week,

a special time to bring awareness to the risk factors, signs, symptoms, and treatment of heart failure (HF).

Did you know?

Nearly 6 million Americans are living with heart failure.
More than 915,00 new cases are diagnosed each year.
Heart failure contributes to 1 in 9 deaths in America.
Every minute, at least one person is diagnosed with heart failure.

Heart failure is a serious long-term (chronic) condition. The good news is that you can live a full and active life with the right medical treatment and the attention you pay to your lifestyle.

Source: American Heart Association.

What is Heart Failure?

Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen. Basically, the heart can’t keep up with its workload.

At first the heart tries to make up for this by:

Enlarging. The heart stretches to contract more strongly and keep up with the demand to pump more blood. Over time this causes the heart to become enlarged.
Developing more muscle mass. The increase in muscle mass occurs because the contracting cells of the heart get bigger. This lets the heart pump more strongly, at least initially.
Pumping faster. This helps increase the heart’s output.

These temporary measures mask the problem of heart failure, but they don’t solve it. Heart failure continues and worsens until these compensating processes no longer work.

Understanding the Causes and Conditions Leading to Heart Failure

Most people who develop heart failure have (or had) another heart condition first. The most common conditions that can lead to heart failure are coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and previous heart attack.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to follow all of your healthcare provider’s instructions and make any needed changes in diet, physical activity and lifestyle. This will help give you the highest possible quality of life.

Heart Failure Warning Signs and Symptoms

By themselves, any one sign of heart failure may not be cause for alarm. But if you have more than one of these symptoms, even if you haven't been diagnosed with any heart problems, report them to a healthcare professional and ask for an evaluation of your heart.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Source: American Heart Association.

Meet Carlton

Patient got his life back after suffering a major heart attack

Due to the amazing doctors and nurses throughout Emergency Hospital Systems, Carlton Ferguson got his life back. After having a major heart attack in a Walmart parking lot, which made his defibrillator fire 6 times to keep his heart beating, multiple hospitals told him there was nothing they could do. Fast forward a month, Carlton feels brand new from the CCM implanted by Dr. Bansal.