Harvard Health Publications - What you need to know about heart failure

Harvard Health Publications - What you need to know about heart failure

Have you — or a loved one — been diagnosed with heart failure?
What you need to know — and do — right now to manage your condition, protect your heart, and ease your greatest concerns.

Dear reader...

By age 60, your heart has beaten over two billion times. Is it any wonder that, for millions of American adults, the heart’s pumping power gradually begins to decline?

Doctors call this decline “heart failure.” It doesn't mean the heart is suddenly shutting down. Quite the opposite, it’s working harder. Heart failure means that the heart's ability to deliver enough oxygenated blood to all the body's organs and tissues is compromised. Undiagnosed and unchecked, this can lead to debilitating or even fatal damage.

The good news is that heart failure is a manageable condition when addressed with a well-designed medical strategy and firm commitment. Diagnosis: Heart Failure, a new Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School, will show you how to initiate and maintain a treatment regimen that is both sound and successful.

You’ll learn the symptoms and warning signs of heart failure. You’ll be briefed on the expanded array of diagnostic tools that doctors are using to assess a heart’s condition, pinpoint the causes of failure, and formulate a targeted and effective response.

This just-published report offers an up-to-the-minute look at the full spectrum of medications that continue to improve the prognosis for men and women with heart failure. The report compares the efficacy and side effects of more than 50 frontline drugs including beta blockers, diuretics, ACE inhibitors, and more.

Importantly, Diagnosis: Heart Failure will help you understand and invest in the steps you need to take to keep heart failure in check. You’ll get guidance for monitoring symptoms, for sticking with your doctor's strategy, and for making heart-smart lifestyle changes. You’ll find tips for reducing salt and fluids, for exercising wisely, and maintaining a positive attitude.

Plus, you’ll learn why more women than men have heart failure, the three risk factors you can’t control (and four you can), the nine warning signs of increasing failure, how to minimize drug interactions, and which diagnostic tests are the most useful, painless, and safe. A Special Section explores high-tech aids that help the heart do its job.

Don’t wait. Order your copy of Diagnosis: Heart Failure now!

To your good health,

Anthony Komaroff, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Senior Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Editor in Chief, Harvard Health Publications