Symptoms and Signs of Heart Failure

Symptoms and signs of heart failure sometimes called congestive heart failure can be difficult to identify and describe, and it is often diagnosed quite late. If you or the person you are caring for has risk factors for heart disease, such as being a smoker or a former smoker and having high blood pressure or coronary artery disease (CAD), it’s a good idea to be on the look out for heart failure. Taken by themselves, any one of the symptoms listed here probably isn’t cause for alarm, but two or more are good cause to call your doctor for an evaluation.

1. Shortness of breath particularly when sleeping or lying down. 

One of the characteristic symptoms of heart failure is waking during the night or in the morning feeling as if you can’t breathe deeply or can’t catch your breath. 

What it feels like:

A feeling of compression in the chest and lungs. Making it difficult to take a deep breath, particularly during exertion or when lying down. Difficulty in sleeping because of breathing difficulties or choosing to sleep in a chair or recliner because its more comfortable. This symptom is easily confused with other sleep problems and breathing problems such as COPD and sleep apnea, but the difference is the feeling of being short of breath when lying down. 

Having to sit to catch ones breath is particularly telling. Many heart failure patients compensate by propping themselves up on pillows to sleep when making a diagnosis, doctors sometimes ask their patients how many pillows they sleep on. 

Why it happens: 

Because the heart’s ability to pump is weakened, blood backs up in the blood vessels that return blood from the lungs to the heart, causing fluid to leak into the lungs. When the head is elevated, gravity helps ease blood flow to and from the lungs, reducing the feeling of breathlessness.

2. A feeling of Chest Pressure or Drowning: 

People diagnosed with heart failure often look back and recognize this early symptom but didn’t know what was happening when they first experienced it or have difficulty describing it. 

What it feels like: 

It may feel like a pressure or heaviness in the chest, or a feeling akin to drowning or being compressed by heavy weight. It may also feel as if the lungs are filed with fluid when trying to take a deep breath. Some people with heart failure experience chest pain but not every one does, so a lack of pain doesn’t rule out failure. 

Why it happens:  

Fluid overload throughout the body affects both the chest cavity and the lungs. Fluid in the lungs can feel like drowning when drawing a breath, and congestion in the chest and abdominal tissues can make the lungs feel pressure from outside. As they might deep under water. 

3. Cloths and shoes might feel tight: 

Fluid retention with swelling is one of the primary symptoms of heart failure but it can be difficult to recognize since the swelling can occur in many areas of the body. 

What it feels like or looks like: 

Tightness in clothes and shoes, or puffiness of the skin. A relatively sudden increase in girth is a tell tale sign of heart failure. Someone with heart failure often looks fatter or bigger around or you might notice a protruding belly or a shirt with straining buttons that previously fit.

If the feet and ankles swell first, you may notice puffiness over the tops of the shoes or an inability to wear certain shoes that ones fit. Roundness or puffiness in the face and neck is also a tell tale sign of heart failure. 

Why it happens: 

Reduced blood flows out of the heart causes blood returning to the heart to backup in the veins. The fluids then build up within tissues, particularly in the abdomen, legs and feet, a condition known as congestion. Also the weakened heart can’t pump enough blood to the kidneys, which become less efficient at flushing sodium and fluids from the body.

4. Heart Rhythm Problems: 

It is very common for people with heart failure to experience palpitations or changes in the heart rhythm. 

What it feels like: 

A fast, irregular, or pounding heartbeat. Someone with heart failure may complain that his heart is racing or that it feels like its beating too hard. Often a fast or irregular heartbeat is accompanied by jittery feeling, similar to that experienced during a panic attack. Other types of arrhythmia often occur as well, including atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. These problems can be dangerous if left untreated, so its important to tell the doctor of any heart-rhythm problems. 

Why it happens: 

The heart tries to make up for weakness in pumping breathing faster and harder. As it tries, the heart can’t keep up a regular rhythm and skips beats, or beats with varying strength

5. Loss of Appetite:

When caring for someone with heart failure you are likely to hear, I m not hungry even when you know its time to eat. This lack of appetite may start gradually with your loved one eating smaller portions and feeling full faster. 

What it feels like: 

A sensation of being full, even when its been a long time since a meal. You might also notice nausea, constipation, a general feeling of being sick to the stomach, or abdominal pain and tenderness. In addition, the heavy feeling in the chest and abdomen can make it unpleasant to eat. 

Why it happens: 

Fluid build up around the liver and intestines interferes with digestion. Decreased blood flow to the stomach and intestines slows the entire digestive process, causing problems like constipation and nausea.

6. Dizziness and light-headedness:

Complaints of feeling faint, light headedness and dizzy are among the most common problems for people with heart failure. You may notice that you are dizzy when you stand up or when walking. 

What it feels like: 

A sensation of being dizzy, faint, and light headedness or as if the world is spinning. Nausea or the feeling of carsickness is common too. 

Why it happens: 

There are several ways heart failure causes dizziness: inadequate oxygen in the circulatory system causes cells to become oxygen deprived. Heart rhythm abnormalities and narrowing in one or more valves restricts blood flow through the heart. Changing levels of chemicals in the blood, such as sodium, can cause confusion and disorientation.

7. Anxiety:

This is one of the most telling yet most often missed clues to heart failure. 

What it feels like: 

Fast, shallow breathing, racing thoughts, sweaty palms, and a rapid heart rate are all signs of a heightened anxiety response. People with heart failure often mistake these feelings for anxiety and stress; they may even refer themselves to a psychiatrist or counselor, saying they feel nervous and agitated. 

Why it happens: 

Congestion around the chest and lungs cause strange sensations throughout the body that are confusing and frightening. Lack of oxygen in the blood stream causes weakness and dizziness and may also produce disorientation and memory loss, which exacerbate anxiety. And a racing heart can feel like an anxiety attack.

8. Coughing:

When coughing is one of the primary symptoms of heart failure, its often confused with the flu or a cold. 

What it feels like: 

A tickle or irritation in the lungs, or fluid in the lungs that needs to come up. The cough associated with heart failure is less likely to be felt in the throat than a flu or cold related cough. A cough associated with heart failure will eventually become chronic but at first it may come and go. 

Why it happens:  

Fluid builds up in the lungs because the heart’s pumping capacity is weakened. The fluid can cause irritation and infection and can lead to pneumonia. If your loved one complain of not being able to draw a breath because of fluid, or you hear the telltale chest rattle of pneumonia, call the doctor right away, note that a dry cough can also be a side effect of some of the medications used to treat heart failure and other cardiac conditions.

Also Read: 

The Dangers of undetected heart problems

How to reduce too much belly fat

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