Essay On Congestive Heart Failure
Aging and Congestive
Heart Failure
Rebecca E. Welch
What Is Congestive Heart Failure?
Congestive Heart Failure, also known as CHF, is a chronic condition that affects the chambers of your heart. You have four chambers: two atria in the upper half of the heart and two ventricles in the lower half.
The ventricles send blood to your organs and tissue and the atria receives the blood as it circulates back from the rest of the body. CHF develops when your ventricles cannot pump in sufficient volume. Blood an other fluids back up inside your lungs, abdomen, liver, and lower body.
How our bodies regulate blood pressure
The body has mechanisms to alter or maintain blood pressure and blood flow. There are sensors that sense blood pressure in the …show more content…
walls of the arteries and send signals to the heart, the arterioles, the veins, and the kidneys that cause them to make changes that lower or increase blood pressure.
There are several ways in which blood pressure can be adjusted; by adjusting the amount of blood pumped by the heart into the arteries (cardiac output), the amount of blood contained in the veins, the arteriolar resistance, and the volume of blood;
• The heart can speed up and contract more frequently
• The veins can expand and narrow.
• The arterioles can expand and narrow.
• The kidney can respond to changes in blood pressure by increasing or decreasing the amount of urine that is produced.
Cycle of blood pressure
• When blood pressure falls, the nervous system sends a signal to the kidneys to release renin into the bloodstream. Renin splits angiotensinogen, a large protein in the bloodstream, to create angiotensin I.
• Angiotensin I is then converted into smaller pieces, including angiotensin II, which causes small arteries to constrict, thereby raising blood pressure.
• Angiotensin II also spurs the adrenal glands to release another hormone aldosterone.
• Aldosterone causes the kidneys to
Your aging heart
•Aging can cause changes in the heart and blood vessels. For example, as you get older, your heart can’t beat as fast during physical activity or stress as when you were younger. However, the number of heart beats per minute (heart rate) at rest does not change as you age.
•Many of the problems older people have with their heart and blood vessels are really caused by disease, not by aging.
For example, an older heart can normally pump blood as strong as a younger heart; less ability to pump blood is caused by disease.
But, changes that happen with age may increase a person’s risk of heart disease. The good news is there are things you can do to delay, lower, or possibly avoid or reverse your risk.
•A common problem related to aging is “hardening of the arteries,” called arteriosclerosis (ahr-teer-ee-o-skluh-roh-sis). This problem is why blood pressure goes up with age.
•Blood vessels can become stiffer, and some parts of the heart wall will thicken to help with blood flow.
•Your valves may become thicker and stiffer, causing leaks or problems with pumping blood out of the heart.
•The size of the sections of your heart may increase.
•Other factors, such as thyroid disease or chemotherapy, may weaken the heart muscle. Things you can’t control, like your family history,might also increase your risk of heart disease. But even so, leading a heart-healthy lifestyle might help you avoid or delay serious illness. Other factors, such as thyroid disease or chemotherapy, may weaken the heart muscle. Things you can’t control, like your family
history,.
Congestive Heart Failure and the
Elderly
• Congestive heart failure (CHF) in the elderly is a quiet, complicated problem.
The condition, which can stem from a range of structural or functional cardiac disorders, is compounded by the effects of old age. CHF often goes undiagnosed, particularly in mild cases, and yet even with the best therapy it is associated with an annual mortality of 10%. In fact, heart failure is the most common reason for hospital admission in the group older than 65, with
900,000 admissions a year in the US alone.
Gender, Ethnic Divide:
Older women tend to have diastolic dysfunction more frequently than older men because the 50+ year-old female heart tolerates a heavy afterload better than the male and is less prone to decompensation at that early age. Men typically develop CAD at an earlier age. Note that hypertension is the number one cause of CHF in the older female.
Some ethnic differences also exist. Heart failure is found more commonly in
African-Americans primarily due to the high prevalence of hypertension, with
Reference www.healthinaging.org www.nlm.nih.gov www.healthline.com www.nia.nih.gov
Heart Failure
Rebecca E. Welch
What Is Congestive Heart Failure?
Congestive Heart Failure, also known as CHF, is a chronic condition that affects the chambers of your heart. You have four chambers: two atria in the upper half of the heart and two ventricles in the lower half.
The ventricles send blood to your organs and tissue and the atria receives the blood as it circulates back from the rest of the body. CHF develops when your ventricles cannot pump in sufficient volume. Blood an other fluids back up inside your lungs, abdomen, liver, and lower body.
How our bodies regulate blood pressure
The body has mechanisms to alter or maintain blood pressure and blood flow. There are sensors that sense blood pressure in the …show more content…
walls of the arteries and send signals to the heart, the arterioles, the veins, and the kidneys that cause them to make changes that lower or increase blood pressure.
There are several ways in which blood pressure can be adjusted; by adjusting the amount of blood pumped by the heart into the arteries (cardiac output), the amount of blood contained in the veins, the arteriolar resistance, and the volume of blood;
• The heart can speed up and contract more frequently
• The veins can expand and narrow.
• The arterioles can expand and narrow.
• The kidney can respond to changes in blood pressure by increasing or decreasing the amount of urine that is produced.
Cycle of blood pressure
• When blood pressure falls, the nervous system sends a signal to the kidneys to release renin into the bloodstream. Renin splits angiotensinogen, a large protein in the bloodstream, to create angiotensin I.
• Angiotensin I is then converted into smaller pieces, including angiotensin II, which causes small arteries to constrict, thereby raising blood pressure.
• Angiotensin II also spurs the adrenal glands to release another hormone aldosterone.
• Aldosterone causes the kidneys to
Your aging heart
•Aging can cause changes in the heart and blood vessels. For example, as you get older, your heart can’t beat as fast during physical activity or stress as when you were younger. However, the number of heart beats per minute (heart rate) at rest does not change as you age.
•Many of the problems older people have with their heart and blood vessels are really caused by disease, not by aging.
For example, an older heart can normally pump blood as strong as a younger heart; less ability to pump blood is caused by disease.
But, changes that happen with age may increase a person’s risk of heart disease. The good news is there are things you can do to delay, lower, or possibly avoid or reverse your risk.
•A common problem related to aging is “hardening of the arteries,” called arteriosclerosis (ahr-teer-ee-o-skluh-roh-sis). This problem is why blood pressure goes up with age.
•Blood vessels can become stiffer, and some parts of the heart wall will thicken to help with blood flow.
•Your valves may become thicker and stiffer, causing leaks or problems with pumping blood out of the heart.
•The size of the sections of your heart may increase.
•Other factors, such as thyroid disease or chemotherapy, may weaken the heart muscle. Things you can’t control, like your family history,might also increase your risk of heart disease. But even so, leading a heart-healthy lifestyle might help you avoid or delay serious illness. Other factors, such as thyroid disease or chemotherapy, may weaken the heart muscle. Things you can’t control, like your family
history,.
Congestive Heart Failure and the
Elderly
• Congestive heart failure (CHF) in the elderly is a quiet, complicated problem.
The condition, which can stem from a range of structural or functional cardiac disorders, is compounded by the effects of old age. CHF often goes undiagnosed, particularly in mild cases, and yet even with the best therapy it is associated with an annual mortality of 10%. In fact, heart failure is the most common reason for hospital admission in the group older than 65, with
900,000 admissions a year in the US alone.
Gender, Ethnic Divide:
Older women tend to have diastolic dysfunction more frequently than older men because the 50+ year-old female heart tolerates a heavy afterload better than the male and is less prone to decompensation at that early age. Men typically develop CAD at an earlier age. Note that hypertension is the number one cause of CHF in the older female.
Some ethnic differences also exist. Heart failure is found more commonly in
African-Americans primarily due to the high prevalence of hypertension, with
Reference www.healthinaging.org www.nlm.nih.gov www.healthline.com www.nia.nih.gov