Heart Failure Specialist

What is heart failure?

When your heart doesn’t pump blood as well as it should, you have some degree of heart failure. In most cases, heart failure is chronic and doesn’t go away on its own, but it can be properly managed with the right medical treatments and lifestyle changes.

What are the symptoms of heart failure?

If you have heart failure, you might have symptoms like:

• Fatigue and weakness
• Shortness of breath
• Irregular or rapid heartbeat
• Reduced ability to exercise
• Increased need to urinate through the night 

Heart failure can lead to complications. In some cases, blood can back up and cause an accumulation of fluid in your lungs (pulmonary edema) and in your legs. 

The lack of oxygenated blood flow can cause your legs to swell and turn blue. You might also be short of breath if you have fluid in your lungs.

What causes heart failure?

Many things  can cause heart failure or make it worse, including:

• Narrowed arteries in your heart
• Heart defects
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Faulty heart valves
• Damage to the heart muscle 

Over time, these things can make your heart too weak or too stiff to pump and fill efficiently. A weakened heart can also become enlarged, forcing it to work harder to pump sufficient blood to the rest of your body. In some cases, the ventricles can stretch.

Heart failure can happen in one or both sides of your heart. Heart failure typically develops following other conditions that have damaged or weakened your heart muscle. 

Acute heart failure that occurs suddenly can be caused by viruses attacking your heart muscle, blood clots in the lungs, allergic reactions, certain illnesses and severe infections, or certain medications that affect your entire body.

How is heart failure treated?

Dr. Dubroff can recommend one or more treatments for heart failure, including: 

• Fitness guidance
• Stress management
• Medications
• Lifestyle changes
• Nutritional counseling

Dr. Dubroff provides proven-successful medications like angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and beta-blockers to reduce your blood pressure.

To prevent heart failure, you could try to minimize or manage the conditions that can cause or worsen heart failures like coronary artery disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Dr. Dubroff also recommends you quit smoking.

Excess body weight can increase the risks to your heart health, so Dr. Dubroff will almost always recommend losing weight.

Some cases of heart failure require surgery to treat the cause, such as implanting a pacemaker or defibrillator or repairing a heart valve.

Don’t wait any longer if you have concerns about your heart health. Call Brighton Beach Medical Group.