Life for patients with heart failure is not easy. There are many recommendations that you should consider. Today we will discover the most important ones.
Heart failure is the inability of the heart to pump blood in adequate amounts to the rest of the body. This causes fatigue and shortness of breath at the slightest effort. The question that now concerns us is what is life like for a patient with heart failure?
To answer this question, we will not only look at the circumstances in which a patient with heart failure is limited, but what he must take into account to improve his situation.
Table of Contents
The life of a patient with heart failure
The life of a patient with heart failure is quite limited. Although this disease can appear at any age, it is more common for older people to suffer from it.
Climbing stairs, carrying shopping bags or going up a hill are activities in which they are short of breath and feel like they are drowning. What happens to them is due to their heart that is unable to pump blood in adequate volumes to meet the demands of metabolism.
The causes for which this condition is suffered can be several: high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy or valvular heart disease, among many other causes. This disease, once it appears, is chronic.
Recommendations after suffering heart failure
The life of a patient with heart failure is not easy. You may even become depressed from all that it means to have heart failure your entire life. However, there are certain things that can be done to improve this situation.
Although a person diagnosed with heart failure cannot be cured, there are certain habits that you can incorporate to gain quality of life. Let’s see what they are.
Improve diet
Increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables can improve the life of a patient with heart failure. If the diet is based on processed foods or junk food, your illness can get worse.
Incorporating these foods plus pasta and fish will prevent cholesterol from appearing, which would be terrible for heart failure. Also, you need to reduce salt and fat, and drink plenty of water.
If the patient with heart failure tends to drink alcohol, he can continue to do so. A glass or two of wine a day might even benefit you, but you should never go over this amount.
Weight control and goodbye to tobacco
By adopting new eating habits and including exercise as part of a daily habit, our weight will decrease. This is very important since the patient with heart failure must maintain an exhaustive control of it. Failure to do so will increase fatigue symptoms and heart attack risks.
If the patient with heart failure is a regular smoker, they should also give up this harmful habit. The reason is that tobacco affects the lungs and heart directly. Therefore, if you want to improve the quality of life, it is better to eradicate it completely.
Take medication
Taking the medication in the manner prescribed by the doctor is also essential. Making a table and hanging it on the fridge door can be a good option so as not to forget the shots.
Also, you can make use of technology and program the mobile to ring each day at a certain time, remembering the drug to be taken. In the event that any problem arises (nausea or dizziness) it is necessary to mention it to the doctor immediately so that he can replace the drug.
In conclusion
As we have seen, although the life of a patient with heart failure is not easy, it can be improved by acquiring a series of healthy habits. These will make you feel much better, more animated and see progress that will increase your well-being.
However, for habits to take effect they must be carried out consistently. Only then will a person with heart failure be able to see improvements.