Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure (CHF) prevention by addressing underlying etiology:

CHF etiologies: CHF may potentially be prevented by intervention on underlying causes leading to the condition. The NHANES I epidemiologic study followed 13,643 subjects over 19 years initially without CHF, and out of 1382 cases of CHF, the following causes were determined (17):

• Coronary heart disease (coronary artery disease) was found to be the most frequent cause of CHF in over 60% of patients.
• Smoking cigarettes, 17.1%
• Hypertension, 10.1%
• Physical inactivity, 9.2%
• Lower educational levels, 8.9%
• Overweight, 8.0%
• Diabetes, 3.1
• Valvular heart disease, 2.2%

Please see the following sections of Preventive Health Advisor: To address underlying conditions of CHF, prevention starts with the necessary lifestyle changes and/or risk factor modification of the conditions which may lead to CHF aforementioned above. Please see the respective sections in Preventive Health Advisor for coronary artery disease, cigarette smoking, hypertension, aerobic exercise, resistance training, weight loss, and diabetes mellitus.