The words ‘heart failure’ can be extremely scary to hear. Of course, nobody wishes to have an issue with the most important organ in the human body. However, what some people may not know is that there are various different types of heart failure. Here at Pumping Marvellous, we are proud to be one of the finest heart foundation charities in the country. As such, we are in a fantastic position to provide you with a guide regarding the different types of heart failure that you can encounter.

Congestive Heart Failure

This is often considered to be the most common type of heart failure. It is a defect which means that your heart has more difficulty pumping blood around the body – this is caused by a steady build-up of liquid that essentially plugs the organ. The ventricles are not able to efficiently, nor effectively, get blood to the necessary body parts. This means that your lungs and abdomen, amongst other things, suffer from a clog of not only blood, but other fluids. One cause of CHF is having high blood pressure; others include high concentrations of cholesterol and coronary artery disease.

Left-Sided Heart Failure – HFpEF

Also known as systolic failure, this type of heart disease is in reference to the heart’s left ventricle not being able to contact as it should do. The knock-on effect of this is that the heart cannot generate the force to be able to adequately get enough blood circulating around the body. As a rule-of-thumb, this type of heart defect is predominantly found in men, rather than women. Typical symptoms that might indicate that you are suffering from this include a regular shortage of breath, a cough that lasts for a long time, and swollen limbs – particularly feet and ankles.

Right-Sided Heart Failure – HFrEF

For anyone that is unaware, right-sided heart failure, which is also sometimes termed as diastolic failure, means that the heart is no longer able to sufficiently fill up with blood. The cause of this is because the left ventricle, due to stiffness in the muscle, cannot relax, therefore restricting the size of the heart valve. If you typically wake up at night struggling to breathe, or experience a drastic gain in weight, it could be that you are suffering from this type of heart failure.

General Information

There are some symptoms that are prevalent across all types of heart failure, and should be looked out for. If you are regularly experiencing bouts of tiredness and breathlessness, feel that your heart rate is consistently high, or have a lack of appetite, it would suggest that you have some sort of damage to your heart. We would advise that, should you be experiencing any of the above, you should get yourself checked out by a medical professional – it could be that you catch developing heart failure.

How can Pumping Marvellous help you?

When it comes to explaining the different causes of heart failure, and providing the necessary support to help combat them, there are none finer than Pumping Marvellous. If you find yourself worrying about a diagnosis, or feel that you are facing this scary situation by yourself, we would love to hear from you. Our primary aim is to ensure that people are able to face their problems head-on. If you visit our website’s contact page, you can take a look at all the ways in which to get in touch with one of our amazing representatives.