What causes heart failure?
The heart loses some of its blood-pumping ability as a natural consequence of aging. However, a number of other factors can lead to a potentially life-threatening loss of pumping activity.
Among prominent risk factors,
hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes are particularly important. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases the risk of heart failure by 200%, compared with those who do not have hypertension. Moreover, the degree of risk appears directly related to the severity of the high blood pressure.
Read more about high blood pressure.
Persons with
diabetes have about a two- to eight-fold greater risk of heart failure than those without diabetes. Women with diabetes have a greater risk of heart failure than men with diabetes. Part of the risk comes from diabetes' association with other heart failure risk factors, such as high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol levels. However, the disease process in diabetes also damages the heart muscle.
The presence of
coronary disease is among the greatest risks for heart failure. Muscle damage and scarring caused by a heart attack greatly increase the risk of heart failure.
Cardiac
arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats, also raise heart failure risk. Any disorder that causes abnormal swelling or thickening of the heart sets the stage for heart failure.
Learn more about arrhythmias.
In some people, heart failure arises from
problems with heart valves, the flap-like structures that help regulate blood flow through the heart.
Read about specific valvular disorders.
Infections in the heart are another source of increased risk for heart failure.
A single risk factor may be sufficient to cause heart failure, but a combination of factors dramatically increases the risk. Advanced age adds to the potential impact of any heart failure risk.
Finally, genetic abnormalities contribute to the risk for certain types of heart disease, which in turn may lead to heart failure. However, in most instances, a specific genetic link to heart failure has not been identified.
Read what Dharam Pal Jain, M.D., a cardiologist with Columbia St. Mary's, advises heart failure patients.
