Can Heart Failure Be Reversed? What You Need to Know About The Role of Lifestyle and Medicine

Heart failure is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the United States each year. It’s a serious condition and needs to be treated to help curb some of the health issues it causes. Some of the symptoms people often notice that could indicate heart failure include shortness of breath, fatigue and weakness, wheezing, swelling of the belly, fluid buildup, and decreased alertness.

Although it can be a deadly disease and can limit things a person can do in their life, it can be reversed with proper care and attention. Below are some options.

Weight and Heart Failure

As a person’s weight increases, it puts more stress on the heart and can even change the heart’s structure and ability to pump blood. Naturally, this leads to a common question asked by many who have the condition. Can weight loss reverse heart failure? According to doctors and researchers, reducing overall body weight can help to improve symptoms and risks of various illnesses, including heart failure.

A person who is carrying more weight than is healthy for them will find that over time, it can damage the heart. Because the heart has to pump harder to push blood, the muscle thickens. Those hearts can’t handle the change and may fail. Even relatively small increases in body weight can cause issues with the heart, which is why it’s so important to maintain weight for long-term health.

When someone loses weight, it helps them decrease the thickness of their heart muscle, which could help lower the risk of heart failure.

Heart Failure and Exercise

Can heart failure be reversed with exercise? Research from UT Southwestern Medical Center has found that exercise can reverse damage to sedentary, aging hearts. This could help to prevent the risk of future heart failure. However, it needs to be started in time to be effective. The researchers said that a good exercise routine should be started before the age of 65 when the heart is still capable of remodeling itself. As the heart gets older, it loses plasticity.

They found that exercise not only needs to be started before age 65, but people also need to be doing enough exercise. Two or three days of working out a week don’t produce good results. Researchers said that it needs to be done four to five times per week, typically in 30-minute sessions, not including warm-up and cool-down periods.

Exercise and weight loss can help to reverse heart failure when it’s started early enough. However, losing weight and keeping fit is not always enough.

Can Heart Failure Be Reversed with Medication?

The types of treatment options and medications that may be prescribed to an individual will vary based on the severity of the case. Some of the common medications that are used for treating heart failure include beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, and Aldosterone inhibitors.

Beta-blockers help to block excess adrenaline production, which could cause damage to heart cells. ACE inhibitors are used to relax blood vessels and lower blood pressure. Aldosterone inhibitors block a hormone that causes the body to retain salt and fluid, which promotes heart failure.

Once the medications are added to a patient’s treatment plan, they are also often required to go on a low-sodium diet. This will help the heart grow stronger.

In cases of someone who has extreme heart failure, the options for treatment are often far more invasive. They may include the addition of an implantable heart pump, which will help the heart to continue pumping blood. Another treatment would be heart reconstruction. Sometimes, the only treatment may be a heart transplant.

By incorporating various treatment methods, including weight loss, exercise, and medications, it is possible to reverse some of the damage to the heart, so patients can live a healthier and happier life. This will likely be a problem that continues to follow them. Regardless of what treatment options are recommended, patients will need to continue taking medication. They should also follow up with their cardiologist regularly to monitor their heart health.

Get Help for Your Heart Today

If you have heart failure or you fear that you might be in danger of this condition, it’s important to speak with a medical professional as soon as possible. The doctor can examine you and test your heart health. They can also provide you with medications and ensure you are healthy enough to start an exercise and weight loss plan. The best option is to always seek early treatment.

Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute

Researchers at the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) are studying what causes heart muscle to fail and are developing therapeutic strategies to both stop heart failure progression and recover failing hearts.  CVRTI Investigators are experts in muscle gene regulation (Franklin), muscle metabolism (Chaudhuri, Drakos), muscle architecture (Hong, Shaw), and treating failing heart muscle (Selzman, Drakos, Dosdall, Hong, Shaw).  One therapeutic program involves using surgically implanted left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) to recover failing hearts (Selzman, Drakos).  Another involves a promising CVRTI generated gene therapy that rescues failing heart muscle, reverses the damage heart failure does to heart muscle, and improves mortality from heart failure (Dosdall, Hong, Shaw).  The therapy is known as cBIN1 gene therapy and is being advanced to clinical trials.

Top Heart Failure Causes

What is Coronary Heart Failure?

Heart failure is a condition that kills hundreds of thousands of people in the United States annually. People often put their hearts at risk without fully understanding just how much damage they can cause. Being overweight, eating unhealthy foods, not being physically active, and smoking could all promote heart failure. Additionally, other health issues can create more wear on the heart, which can lead to a higher risk.

The Effects of Coronary Artery Disease to Heart Failure

Coronary artery disease tends to cause high blood pressure, as the arteries become more and more clogged with cholesterol and fatty deposits. High blood pressure could lead to heart failure over time. If someone has suffered a heart attack in the past, it can weaken and damage the heart tissue, which reduces its ability to pump blood. This can also lead to an increased risk of heart failure.

What Can Cause a Weak Heart

Abnormal heart valves and heart defects at birth can cause a weakened heart, as can heart muscle diseases and inflammation. The hearts of people who suffer from severe lung disease must work hard to get oxygen to the rest of the body, which causes a lot of wear. Over time, this can lead to heart disease. Some of the other potential causes of failure and heart disease include sleep apnea, diabetes, abnormal heart rhythm, severe anemia, and hyperthyroidism.

As you can see, there’s no single factor that will cause heart disease. It can stem from a range of conditions and lifestyle choices.

Types of Heart Failure

When discussing this condition, it is important to understand that there are not only multiple causes, but also multiple types of heart failure.

Left Ventricular Heart Failure

The left ventricle of the heart pumps blood to the rest of the body and is responsible for most of the pumping power. It is larger than the other chambers of the heart.

There are two types of left ventricular heart failure.

First, there is a systolic failure, which means the left ventricle is no longer capable of contracting properly, so the blood can’t be pushed through the body. Second is a diastolic failure. This means that the left ventricle cannot relax normally because the muscle has stiffened.

Right Ventricular Heart Failure

The right ventricle pumps blood from the heart to the lungs, so it can be filled with oxygen. This type of failure usually happens because there is a left ventricular failure. Fluid pressure is pushed back through the lungs, damaging the right ventricle. This may cause swelling in the legs and ankles, as well as the abdomen.

Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure requires that patients get medical attention right away. In these cases, the blood is pumping out of the heart slowly, and when it returns, it begins to back up and cause congestion in the body, which causes swelling. The fluid could also collect in the lungs, which can make breathing difficult, especially if the patient is lying down. This is known as pulmonary edema, and it could cause respiratory distress when not treated promptly.

Stages of Heart Failure

There are four stages of heart failure—A, B, C, and D.

Stage A

Someone who is at Stage A is considered at high risk for heart failure, but they haven’t yet developed structural heart disease or symptoms associated with heart failure.

Stage B

At Stage B, the person has identifiable structural heart disease or cardiomyopathy, but they still don’t have the usual symptoms associated with heart failure.

Stage C

When someone reaches Stage C, they have structural heart disease and will likely have prior or current heart failure symptoms.

Stage D

Stage D involves refractory heart failure and requires medical intervention and treatment for the patient.

Ideally, a patient will already be speaking with their cardiologist and taking steps to prevent further damage to their body. Treatments vary for the different stages, and it’s always best to follow the advice of the doctor.

How Is Heart Failure Diagnosed?

Doctors can administer a wide range of tests to determine whether someone has heart failure. This includes blood tests, as well as electrocardiograms (ECGs). The ECG will record the electrical activity in the heart to look for any issues. Some of the other options include echocardiograms, chest x-rays, ejection fraction, stress tests, CT scans of the heart, cardiac MRIs, coronary angiograms, and myocardial biopsies.

The test a patient is given will depend on their current condition and what the doctor feels will provide the best results. The doctors will also discuss various methods of treatment if heart failure or other issues are discovered.

Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute

Researchers at the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) are studying what causes heart muscle to fail and are developing therapeutic strategies to both stop heart failure progression and recover failing hearts.  CVRTI Investigators are experts in muscle gene regulation (Franklin), muscle metabolism (Chaudhuri, Drakos), muscle architecture (Hong, Shaw), diagnosing (Hong, Shaw) and failing heart muscle treatment (Selzman, Drakos, Dosdall, Hong, Shaw).  One therapeutic program involves using surgically implanted left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) to recover failing hearts (Selzman, Drakos).  Another involves a promising CVRTI generated gene therapy that rescues failing heart muscle, reverses the damage heart failure does to heart muscle, and improves mortality from heart failure (Dosdall, Hong, Shaw).  The therapy is known as cBIN1 gene therapy and is being advanced to clinical trials.

The Early Signs, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Stages of Heart Failure

The term “heart failure” may sound as though your heart completely stopped working, but that’s not the case. Heart failure means that the heart is no longer capable of pumping blood as well as it should be. It is a serious long-term condition that worsens over time. When the heart doesn’t pump blood properly, your organs will not be getting the blood needed to perform.

The Early Warning Signs and Symptoms of Heart Failure

Signs and symptoms of heart failure vary in type and severity. Some of the common signs include shortness of breath, swelling in the legs, ankles, and abdomen, and feelings of fatigue when you are active.

People with heart failure might also notice they need to get up more and urinate during the night. They may have irregular heartbeats or a dry, hacking cough. Weight gain can occur, as well. Sometimes the symptoms are mild or they could vanish entirely. It is important to note that this doesn’t mean that you no longer have heart failure. They may vanish for a time and then return.

For most patients, heart failure will continue to worsen. After a diagnosis, make your doctor aware of any changes to your symptoms.

How Is Heart Failure Diagnosed?

Your doctor will need to know more regarding your medical history, as well as your heart failure symptoms. They may ask whether you have a family history of heart disease or sudden death, whether you smoke or use tobacco, and how much alcohol you drink. They will also want to know what medications you are taking.

They need to know about other health conditions you may have, such as kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, or other heart issues.

The doctor will provide a physical exam to look for early signs of heart failure or other diseases that could have affected your heart muscle. They will often check your ejection fraction, which will let them know how well your ventricles are pumping blood. This can be done relatively easily with noninvasive tests. Normal left ventricular EF is between 53% and 70%.

Other tests that will determine the severity of your heart failure and its cause include various blood tests, cardiac catheterization, chest x-rays, ECGs, MRIs, EKGs, echocardiograms, stress tests, and MUGA scans.

Once the doctor determines the type of heart failure you have and the cause, they can begin treatment. The types of treatment often vary based on the stage.

The Stages of Heart Failure

Below are the stages of heart failure, along with potential treatments used at each stage.

Heart Failure Stage A

When you are at risk but haven’t suffered heart failure yet, you are considered in Stage A. Those who are at this stage can undergo a treatment plan that can help them to reduce their risk of further damage. This includes becoming more active and getting regular exercise, stopping the use of tobacco products, getting treatment for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and not drinking or using recreational drugs.

Doctors may prescribe angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or an angiotensin II receptor blocker for those who have high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary artery disease, or other cardiac issues. Beta-blockers might also be prescribed for those with high blood pressure.

Heart Failure Stage B

This is also considered pre-heart failure. The doctor has found that you have systolic left ventricular dysfunction, although you don’t have symptoms of heart failure.

In addition to the Stage A treatments, the doctor might also prescribe an aldosterone antagonist if you have diabetes or have had a heart attack and have an ejection fraction of 35% or less. In some cases, surgery may be required.

Heart Failure Stage C

Those with Stage C heart failure currently or previously had some or all of the signs and symptoms mentioned above. The Stage A and B treatments are still employed along with medications that can slow the heart rate if it’s above 70 bpm and the symptoms remain.

If Symptoms Continue

Diuretic pills may be used if symptoms continue, and sodium will be restricted. At this stage, patients must track their weight daily and let the doctor know if there is a change of more than four pounds. Fluid restriction could be required in some patients. The use of a biventricular pacemaker could also be required as a means of cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Heart Failure Stage D

At this point, the patient has advanced symptoms that will not get better with treatment. It is the final stage of heart failure. At this point, in addition to the treatments used for the earlier stages, more advanced treatments are needed. This may include ventricular assist devices, a heart transplant, heart surgery, or hospice care.

Patient outcomes will vary. Those who have heart failure or who are worried they are at risk should speak with their doctor as soon as possible. Getting a diagnosis and treatment as early as possible can make a difference.

Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute

Researchers at the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) are studying what causes heart muscle to fail and are developing therapeutic strategies to both stop heart failure progression and recover failing hearts.  CVRTI Investigators are experts in muscle gene regulation (Franklin), muscle metabolism (Chaudhuri, Drakos), muscle architecture (Hong, Shaw), and treating failing heart muscle (Selzman, Drakos, Dosdall, Hong, Shaw).  One therapeutic program involves using surgically implanted left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) to recover failing hearts (Selzman, Drakos).  Another involves a promising CVRTI generated gene therapy that rescues failing heart muscle, reveres the damage heart failure does to heart muscle, and improves mortality from heart failure (Dosdall, Hong, Shaw).  The therapy is known as cBIN1 gene therapy and is being advanced to clinical trials.