What is Heart Failure
Heart failure is a serious medical condition where your heart is weak and is not pumping enough
blood to meet your body needs or your heart cannot relax properly to fill with blood. When your
heart is not pumping enough blood your body cannot receive as much oxygen and nutrients as
needed which may cause you , for example, to get tired easily. Also, your body is not able to get
rid of waste as effectively as before and it is common for fluid to back up in the lungs (this is way
it is also known as congestive heart failure) and other parts of the body such as feet, ankles,
legs, hands, and abdomen.
Heart failure usually develops gradually after diseases such as long standing high blood
pressure, a heart attack or another condition has damaged or weakened the heart muscle. The
majority of heart failure patients are over 65 years of age and there is a strong connection
between old age and heart failure but it can develop at any age. It is also more common among
men and African American because of the high incidence of high blood pressure in this
This page was last modified on Monday, May 04, 2009