THIS Heart Failure Awareness Week, the heart failure specialist nurses at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust are urging you to know the signs of heart failure and what to do if you spot them.

In the UK the current estimate of people suffering with heart failure is around 900,000.

Lyndsey Sowerby, heart failure specialist nurse, said: “Heart failure means that your heart isn’t pumping blood and oxygen around the body as well as it should.

"It doesn’t mean your heart has stopped working, however you would need treatment to support it to work better and stop is getting worse.

“The likeliness of getting heart failure increases as you get older.”

The main symptoms of heart failure are:

  • Shortness of breath, when you’re active or resting.
  • Swollen feet, ankles, stomach or around the lower back area – caused by fluid build-up.
  • Feeling unusually tired or weak.

If you are suffering with these symptoms, please arrange to speak to your GP.

Lyndsey explains possible causes: “Heart failure can be caused by many conditions but the main causes are a heart attack and ischaemic heart disease, as this can cause long-term damage to your heart affecting how it can pump.

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"High blood pressure, that puts strain on the heart, which over time can lead to heart failure.

"Cardiomyopathy which is a disease of the heart muscle and problems with the heart valves.”

How to support heart health

Lifestyle changes you can make to prevent heart disease and heart failure:

  • Adopt a healthier lifestyle
  • Take regular exercise or staying physically active
  • Stop smoking.
  • Maintain a healthy weight.
  • Reduce and managing stress.
  • Adopt a heart healthy diet with fruits and vegetables (heart healthy recipes)
  • Control your blood pressure and cholesterol.
  • Limit alcohol intake.
  • Adopt a low salt diet.

Lyndsey added: “To test for heart failure a simple blood test can signify stress to the heart and if it is raised you may require a further test called echocardiogram.

"If there are abnormalities found you will need to be seen by a cardiologist who will discuss the findings and may start medication to help your symptoms.”

It is important that heart failure is diagnosed early, so that treatments can be started to help alleviate symptoms and improve prognosis and quality of life.

Heart failure is a chronic disease, which will require lifelong treatment.

However, with treatment many people can expect to see improvement in their signs and symptoms of heart failure.

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