With congestive heart failure, your elderly family member’s heart muscle doesn’t function as well as it used to.
That functioning continues to decline over time, leading to more and more issues for your elderly family member’s body and cardiovascular system. As congestive heart failure worsens, your senior is likely to experience fatigue, edema in her extremities, and other issues. Your senior’s doctor will give her a plan for managing her congestive heart failure, but it can help to know what might have contributed to it.

Heart Attacks

Heart attacks occur when arteries become blocked and impede blood flow to the heart. This means the heart isn’t able to pump blood and becomes damaged. These blockages are often made up of plaque that forms in blood vessels and then breaks away and forms a clot. Scar tissue forms during and after the heart attack, which can affect how well the heart muscle works going forward. When too much damage occurs, the heart itself can start to fail.

Coronary Artery Disease

When plaque builds up in your senior’s coronary arteries, they become narrow and they can harden. This is a bad situation because it limits the amount of blood that can flow through those arteries to your senior’s heart. That means that not as much oxygen and other vital nutrients are getting to the heart and throughout your senior’s body.

Cardiomyopathy

When the heart itself becomes rigid or enlarged, that’s called cardiomyopathy. This disease affects the heart itself and weakens it. Cardiomyopathy can be hereditary, but it can also be a result of infections in the heart or other conditions, like nutritional deficits, alcoholism, or infections that affect the heart. A history of heart attacks can also lead to cardiomyopathy.

High Blood Pressure, Heart Defects, and Other Cardiovascular Issues

Anything that affects how well your senior’s heart functions can ultimately cause congestive heart failure. High blood pressure that is left uncontrolled for long periods of time damages the entire cardiovascular system, but especially the heart. Other health conditions, like diabetes and thyroid diseases, can also affect how well the heart works, which can lead to long-term damage and congestive heart failure.

Congestive heart failure progresses at different rates. Your senior may find that she has good days and bad days while she’s doing all she can to manage her condition. It helps immensely for her to have assistance when she needs it. Elder care providers have the experience to be able to give your senior that help.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring  Home Care in Pleasant Hill, CA, contact the friendly staff at Home Care Professionals today.
Call (866)-940-4855

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andy@hcprosonline.com

CEO at HomeCare Professionals

Andy Howardis a Bay Area Native who holds a BA in Political Science (University of Colorado at Boulder, ’97). After college Andy worked in the surging tech industry.His Grandmother however, would suffer a significant decline in health and ultimately needed in-home care. The experience of a loved one depending on outside help to age in place proved to be pivotal for Andy as he left the tech industry in 2002 for an opportunity in the home care world with a large provider. After having success in home care, but being frustrated by corporate constraints Andy founded HomeCare Professionals in 2005.He methodically built the company one client at a time by focusing on hiring quality caregivers to ensure positive outcomes. Currently Andy serves as the CEO of HomeCare Professionals and is also highly active in the non-profit organization California Association of Health Services at Home (CAHSAH) which advocates for a higher standard of in-home care for those who wish to remain living at home in California.

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