Signals Of Heart Failure That You Overlook Each Day

Millions of people are walking around right now with signs of heart failure and they have no idea. And the tragedy is that the body is sending messages, sometimes subtle, sometimes loud, but most people ignore them. And that's because heart failure isn't one single disease. It's the end result of many smaller problems that silently chip away at the heart over time. And then by the time most people get diagnosed, their heart has already lost much of its strength. But it doesn't have to be that way. Heart failure is not inevitable. If you know the early warning signs and you understand the lifestyle choices that either push you toward it or protect you from it, you can take action long before your heart gives out. Hello, health champions. Today we're going to talk about the early signs of heart failure. And we're going to explain exactly what's happening inside the body and steps to prevent it so that you can take action while there is time. Sign number one is shortness of breath. And when this happens, a lot of people are going to say, well, I guess I'm just out of shape. I guess I'm just getting old. And you look around you and you see a lot of other people with the same condition. And then therefore you think it's normal. But chances are that's what happening is that your heart could be weakening. And if the left side of the heart starts weakening, which is usually an early sign, that's the first thing to fail typically, then you fluid starts building up in the lungs. And that's also called pulmonary edema. And now what happens is that you can't exchange oxygen as well because the lungs are supposed to be full of air. If they start filling up with fluid, they don't work as well. It's sort of like trying to breathe underwater. We're not designed to do that. Fish can do that. Humans can't do that. As a result, there's not enough oxygen in your blood. And therefore you get out of breath. And let me make it perfectly clear that this is very different from a heart attack. A heart attack also known as a myocardial infarction is an acute failure. It's an acute crisis. And it's typically caused by a ruptured plaque that compromises blood supply to a portion of the heart. And as a result, we have heart muscle cells that are dying. In the next few seconds and minutes, they're going to be portions of that heart muscle that die. That's a heart attack. Now heart failure in contrast or chronic heart failure, abbreviated CHF, is very different. This is a slow progression of many different factors that compromises the heart's ability to perform work. And this is a general inefficiency, a general insufficiency of the heart to do what it's supposed to. So let's talk about the basics. The heart is a pump and its job is to move fluid throughout the body. And I recommend that you pay attention to these steps here because it's going to make the rest of the video so much more understandable. And we're going to make a schematic here. And this is the heart. It has four chambers. We have first the right atrium. We have the right ventricle. We have the left atrium and the left ventricle. So blood returns to the heart from the body through what's called the venacabha. So the venous system returns blood to the right atrium. And I do this in blue because this blood is less oxidant, deoxygenated blood. And then it gets in through a valve into the right ventricle. And this right ventricle is now going to pump the blood to the lungs. And it still doesn't have much oxygen in it. Now we get to the lungs. And then the lungs oxygenate the blood. So now it's red. And it returns to the left atrium. And then here is another valve. And this is going to be important later. It gets out into the left ventricle. And now it pumps it out through the aorta, out to the body. And this is not anatomically correct. It's just a schematic. So we can see what's happening and understand. So there are many different things that could happen to compromise the efficiency of this system. But one of the first things that usually happen is that the left ventricle can't pump hard enough. And it could be because the heart muscle is not strong enough that it weakens over time. Or it could be because there is increased resistance. If the body is giving too much resistance called to high a blood pressure, then the ventricle is going to work too hard and it can't overcome that pressure. And of course we could also have a situation where we have both. And now if there's too much resistance and the heart is weak, now it can't effectively pump and empty the heart, empty the ventricle of blood every time. So the blood starts getting stagnant. Another thing that could happen is if we have a valve lesion. So these valves here are super important because the blood comes in from the lung into the left atrium and then the atrium pumps it in to the ventricle. And then the ventricle has the hard pump. That's the big push. But now if this valve doesn't close properly, now half the blood might be flowing backwards instead of out into the aorta. So valve lesions are also a common, not super common, but it's an important factor in an inefficient heart and in heart failure. So if any of these things happen where the heart can't pump the blood effectively, whether it's a weak muscle, a bad valve, or too much resistance from the body, now the blood doesn't leave the heart. And now therefore there is not enough room for the new blood from the lungs to come in. And as a result, we have a fluid backup. It starts backing up into the lungs and we're basically drowning on dry land. And as this situation progresses and gets worse, now we can end up with chronic heart failure, where basically our entire circulation, our entire circulatory system is disrupted. And we end up with fluid primarily in the lungs, in the abdomen and in the legs. And this of course gives rise to the signs and symptoms that we're going to talk about. Sign number two is fatigue and weakness. And just like in the first sign, we have a decreased cardiac output, which again is primarily due to a left-sided failure. And it could be an early sign. If there's less output, there is less oxygen to the tissues with less oxygen. We can't make energy the way we're supposed to. And we end up with fatigue and weakness. And this fatigue could be pretty significant, even from very, very light activity. Sign number three is rapid or irregular heartbeat. And this is a compensatory mechanism. And it makes perfect sense because if there's less oxygen being circulated, now the heart is going to try to compensate by beating faster. And this could be a result of a failure of both the left and the right side, but much more so the left still. And this could be an early to a mid-stage problem. And this problem if we don't dramatically change our lifestyle at an early stage, it's probably going to get worse over time. Because the problem now is if the heart starts beating faster, there's also less time for it to fill up properly. So now it only gets half full and then it beats, but it can't do an efficient job. And now we start having a decrease in efficiency. And we have a decrease in what's called a stroke volume. Each heartbeat pushes less blood. And the ejection fraction, the percentage also goes down. The fourth sign can be persistent coughing or wheezing. And now what happens is because we have fluid in the lungs. This can also seep out and leak into the airways. And now of course when we have stuff in the airways, now that triggers a cough. And again, it could be chronic if this is a chronic problem. Sometimes what we're coughing up could be frothy or blood tinged also because of the chronic irritation. And like we talked about, if the lungs fill up with fluid, it's because the left side of the heart is falling behind. So this is primarily a left-sided problem. And this could happen relatively early or mid stage in the process. Sign number five is rapid weight gain. So if you don't have any other reason to see a weight gain, and suddenly you gain two to five pounds in just a few days. What could be happening is again. If the left side fails and doesn't pump enough blood out to the body, one of the organs that are getting less blood is obviously the kidney. And the kidney regulates fluid volume in the body, but the kidney doesn't know if you're truly dehydrated, if you've lost a lot of water, or if the water, the fluid, just isn't being pumped from the heart. To the kidney, it's all the same. It just knows we don't have enough fluid. I'm getting much less than I'm supposed to. And then the kidney goes in and starts compensating. It kicks in a reaction where it starts to retaining extra salt and extra water to the point where you could actually gain several pounds in just a few days. And this weight gain phenomenon is something that we could catch early if we paid really close attention. But for the most part, people are going to miss it. And we're not going to find out about this until much later in the disease process. Sign number six is edema in the legs. So you're going to notice swollen legs, swollen feet and ankles. And unlike the stuff we talked about so far, this is primarily a right-sided failure. If the left side fails in the heart, then the fluid is going to back up into the lungs. If the right side fails, now the fluid is going to back up into the body, into the lower body, as it's not able to return through the venous system. And this is typically going to be a mid-stage or a later stage because most of the time, and we'll talk about the difference, but most of the time, a right-sated failure happens after a left-sided failure. So it's secondary to the left side failing first. And here's how that works with the left or the right or both sides failing. So typically, what we're going to see is the left side fails first. Usually, that's where the problem starts. And that's because the left ventricle, which is the biggest, thickest portion of the heart muscle, it pumps out to the body. And the blood pressure necessary is much greater. So it's pumping against the greatest resistance in the body. And we're looking at a 120/80, which is the pressure it has to overcome to get the blood out. And because that's the biggest obstacle, that's where the problems usually start. By comparison, the right side of the heart, we have the right ventricle that pumps up into the lungs. That's a much thinner muscle because the pressure it has to overcome is much, much less. Typically, 25/10. So it's a mere fraction of the pressure. So therefore, the sequence of things is usually that the left side fails first, but now, over time, the fluid backs up into the lungs. And if the lungs are full of water, now there's going to be more resistance to push fluid through there. So now we end up with what's called pulmonary hypertension, and the lung pressure goes up a lot from there. And as a result, now the right side can also fail because it's not able to overcome the pressure in the lungs. And this is why a right-sided failure is usually secondary to a left-sided failure. Unless there is some other factor, such as some other lung condition that creates resistance for the right side, or if you have leaky valves. Because then the right side could also fail as it has to pump much, much harder. It has to expand more effort because it's inefficient when the blood is leaking the wrong way. So typically, what we're going to see is that in the early stages, the early signs and symptoms, it's primarily going to involve the left side. Whereas later on, it's probably going to affect both. Sign number seven is nocturia, which means increased urination at night. And this would be typically both a left and right-sided failure, and therefore it would be later in the game, so mid to late stages. And what's happening is what we just talked about with the right-sided failure, that the blood can't return from the body, so now it pulls in the lower body. And of course, during the day as you're walking around, this is worsened by gravity. So gravity is pulling down, making it even harder to return the blood to the heart. But then at night, as you lay down, and gravity is not working on you in a vertical position, now most of that fluid from the lower body is going to return back into circulation. It's just going to flow naturally, so to speak. And as a result, the kidneys are going to have to pump a whole lot more blood when that blood volume increases, and you're going to filter out all that fluid, and you have to go to the bathroom. And even though the body is pretty amazing at restoring and repairing and rebuilding, this is one of those conditions where it's so much better to get out ahead of it and work on prevention rather than reversal. Even though it is possible, it's going to be difficult in the advanced stages. So here are the things that actually cause chronic heart failure, that starts chipping away at the circulatory system. And by far, the number one cause is high blood pressure, because if your blood pressure is too high, then this left side of the heart is always going to have to work over time, and with much, much to effort to get that blood out to the body. Number two is heart attacks. If you've had a myocardial infarction where you had that plaque rupture, and you killed off a portion of your heart muscle died, now the pump itself is damaged. You have less muscle tissue left, and therefore that's going to compromise heart function, obviously. But the next two are the big ones for you to pay attention to. Insulin resistance type 2 diabetes and obesity is the next leading cause of chronic heart failure, closely followed by number 4 smoking. So these are definitely things that you can do something about, and if you also realize that number 1 and number 2 are mostly caused by number 3, that insulin resistance diabetes causes heart attacks and high blood pressure along with stress, then you realize how much influence you have over this process. Number 5 can be very significant heart valve disease, but that's not one that you can do much about. Sometimes it's a tiny little failure that doesn't really affect you much throughout your lifetime, and sometimes it's a big defect that really changes everything. Number 6 is various toxins such as alcohol, medication, and environmental toxins. So here again lifestyle we can do a lot to prevent this, and lastly sleep apnea, and other lung diseases can also make it harder for the hard to work. So I'm going to mention the solutions very briefly, because my entire channel is basically that. So because this is not a single disease, it's not one disease that you can pin your finger on, then you want to think holistic, meaning you want to think about all the different factors that affect your health and that could compromise the heart. So in general I'd like to think about each better, move better, and feel better. So these are the three steps. This is for our nutrition, our chemical health, the movement is our mechanical, physical health, and the feel better is our emotional health. So the first part is the number one thing you want to do is just cut out sugar, seed oil, and processed foods. And instead you want to increase whole food, fresh food, and you want to supplement if you can't get the top food all the time, or if you have a genetic predisposition for something, then there are certain supplements that might come in handy. And some of the most important supplements for the heart would be fish oil if you don't eat fish, fatty fish at least three times a week, vitamin D if you find that you have low levels during certain seasons at least. And something called homocysteine that we're just waking up to the importance of. It's an inflammatory marker that contributes to the overall inflammation in the body. And if we can't break it down, which about half the world's population has a genetic predisposition in a gene called MTHFR, then you would do well to supplement with something to bring down homocysteine. And I recently developed a product that is the most complete comprehensive product on the market to reduce homocysteine, and I'll put a link down below if you want to check that out. And when it comes to move better, we just have to understand that movement is not optional. Your bodies are made to move. It's not about going to the gym three times a week. It's about doing something a lot of the time. You want to get several thousand steps in. You want to move. You want to take the stairs. You want to walk [BLANK_AUDIO] across the parking lot, do all the things that your body is designed to. And it's not about burning calories or losing weight. It's that movement stimulates the brain. And there is not a single physiological function in your body that does not depend on movement. Everything works better, including circulation. And the last one here, feel better is just as important. It's like three legs on a table where if we don't have all three, that table is going to topple over. And most people, they kind of live their life by default when it comes to feeling. They think, "Well, I feel good some days when good things happen and I feel bad other days when bad things happen. They're living by default." But you don't want to do that. You want to get out ahead of it. You want to decide, "I am going to feel good." And you start working at it. You become the driver of your emotions. And if you're prepared and if you practice, then you're not just going to end up receiving things to make you feel certain ways. You're going to be the driver of your emotions. You decide how you react to different things. So most people think they're going to feel better when things get better, when we get a new president, when the economy improves, etc. That's not what it's about. You feel better when you decide. Sign number eight is orthopnea, which means that you have a hard time sleeping when you lay down. And this is because when you have excess fluid in the body and you lay down, now that will tend to kind of drift, flow like the tide, over toward your lungs. And that of course makes it more difficult to breathe when you lie down. And this is typically both a right-sided and a left-sided failure like we talked about. The left side is usually going to fail first. And we have some fluid in the lungs. But then if the right side fails and we get excess fluid in the body, then that's going to get more so into the lungs over time. So some people end up sleeping with a lot of pillows under their head or they might only be able to sleep in a chair or a recliner. And sadly, very often they don't realize they just feel, hey, I sleep better when I'm a little bit upright, not realizing that they could be having mid to late stage bilateral heart failure. And that kind of makes me wonder because whenever I watch a movie or a sitcom or something, then if you notice when they get into bed that they're always sitting up, I've never basically seen a person lay down with a single pillow. There's always like two or three pillows and they're leaning up against the wall. Do they all have orthopenia? I don't know. Sign number nine could be that you can't climb stairs anymore or you're unable to do even very, very light activity. And again, we mentioned this earlier, but here's a more severe case where you have reduced cardiac output, which would reduce the energy production. And as a result, simple things like carry and groceries or climbing stairs become absolutely exhausting and overwhelming. And typically this starts with the left side of reduced cardiac output, but as things progress, we would also typically have a right-sided failure causing venous congestion and that would further compromise circulation. Sign number 10 is a swollen abdomen. And this would be a right-sided failure causing venous congestion if the blood can't get into the right side because it's not emptying. Now we get accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity and we get an increased pressure in our abdominal organs such as liver intestines, et cetera. And now that excess pressure and that backup causes a leakage of fluid into the abdominal cavity, which is also called asides. And typically this condition would be secondary to a left-sided heart failure unless there is some congenital defect, some valve defect or some other lung disease. So most of the things we talk about happen to older people once they get up into their 50s and 60s and 70s, but it doesn't mean that it only happens to them. You could still get this in your 30s and 40s. And if it happens without you having a heart disease or metabolic problems, then you really want to look into if there is some other lung disease or valve problems. If you enjoyed this video, you're going to love that one. And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell, and turn on all the notifications. you never missed a life-saving video.