Chances are, that if you’ve hung around a couple of old-timers, you might’ve heard them throw around the term ‘heart failure’ or ‘heart attack’. Well, what they are referring to is essentially, in the medical lexicon, is called a myocardial infarction, and it entails in it a whole slew of other commonly-known afflictions of the heart. These include congestive heart failure, which is basically a stage of heart failure, which itself is another name for a heart attack. This is some complex medical taxonomy, but bear with us, because for today we’re going to be discussing how to reverse congestive heart failure.

Before we get into it, from a medical standpoint, understand that reversing a disease, especially one that affects the crucial organs of the body (brain, lungs, heart etc) is not a physiological possibility. Because these are type-specific cells and muscles and regeneration is a capability only shared by a few (including epithelial cells), strictly speaking, reverse in this case is simply a return to nominal functioning. This in no way means that the dead cardiac muscles or tissues could be revived back, although it is a distant possibility and just a medical breakthrough is needed for it. So, how to reverse congestive heart failure will not essentially revive the dead cardiac muscle, but will make use of the remaining muscle to ensure that the heart does not get taxed too much over its lack of power. 

Reversing congestive heart failure means that one could, with the right therapy, medication and lifestyle changes, get more use out of the cardiac muscle that has been spared from the damage of non-availability of blood and oxygen. Congestive heart failure reversal is not a medical possibility, because the body uses fibrous scar tissue to cover and replace the dead tissue in such situations, which is what happens in the event of a congestive heart failure. When the cardiac muscle in a specific part of the heart dies out, it is later covered by scar tissue, the same type that covers up scars and wounds on the skin. As such, scar tissue has no ability to contract and expand with ease as cardiac muscle does, so, no, you will not be getting anything done with that. Instead, what we’ll focus on is the ways that you can utilize the existing muscle to ensure two things;

  • The remaining heart muscle is not stressed with performing normal functioning
  • The heart continues beating and pumping blood at an optimal speed and rhythm

Furthermore, we’ll be looking into some of the natural cures for congestive heart failure, and how to treat congestive heart failure naturally.

Now, without any further ado, let’s see how to reverse congestive heart failure, but before that, we ask the question: what is congestive heart failure?

What is Congestive Heart Failure?

A congestive heart failure is basically a stage of heart failure, wherein due to poor gaseous and fluid exchange from the heart and lungs (brought on by poor circulation), fluid build-up starts to occur in the extremities of the body, which are the first to be affected when heart failure begins. Similarly, deoxygenated blood in small quantities also starts to back up in the capillaries, which, due to their small size, get jammed quite easily, compounding problems further and contributing more to the congestive heart failure in the individual.  

How to Reverse Congestive Heart Failure

As explained beforehand, you can’t actually reverse congestive heart failure because you can’t reverse cell death, much like death in humans and animals. So, in this passage, what is actually meant by congestive heart failure reversal is basically some tips to keep the active part of the heart functioning as normal and allowing it to not be stressed when tasked with what is an additional duty. Understand that while the cardiac muscle is well-adapted to contracting and expanding at a specific pace, it can only over-exert for so much longer. There is a risk of heart failure should the remaining cardiac muscle be over-exerted to the point where it stops beating, loses functionality and results in immediate death of the person. 

Either way, let’s get into how to reverse congestive heart failure,

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  • Maintaining a balanced, healthy diet

One of the major things that causes a heart attack or heart failure is an improper diet, which focuses more on fats, oils and cholesterol rather than fibers, vitamins and minerals. A good example of post-heart failure capacity retention would be to encourage and practice a diet which emphasizes on fiber, good cholesterol, proteins and vitamins and less on fats and oils. Considering obesity is the leading cause of all heart diseases, one can begin to understand the reasoning and logic behind maintaining such a diet, to ensure that the blood veins and arteries are not deposited with cholesterol, thereby keeping the pathways open, which means that the heart has to perform less to get blood all over the body. This is the first method to retain more heart muscle and to ensure the organ does not wear itself out.

  • Exercise (light cardio, fat burning)

Exercise is what separates the healthy from the fat, and is also the difference between living a scaredy life, concerned about your heart, and a life that’s filled with activity and keeping yourselves fit. For one, many cardiologists suggest light cardio as a way to get the heart back in rhythm and pumping action, especially sometime after you’ve had cardiac surgery done. This allows the heart to build a natural tolerance for working, and light cardio will mean that the remaining healthy muscle will build up resistance to exertion and will then be more healthy and more capable. Similarly, fat burning will ensure that all the excessive gunk of cholesterol and fat is removed from the bloodstream and the body, which will help out a taxed heart even more.

  • Reducing stress and tension

It has been empirically proven that stress and hypertension can have a deteriorating effect on the functioning of the heart, as it affects the dilation of the arteries and the veins, not to mention the valves of the heart themselves. So, a good way of getting more use out of a damaged heart (that is recovering from a case of congestive heart failure) is by reducing and managing stress and tension to the point where it does not affect the heart. Because dilation and constriction are natural processes and functions and are regulated by the heart itself; stress and tension are two outside factors that can deregulate it and cause the heart to operate rather unnaturally. Therefore, to ensure smooth functioning of the already damaged heart, cardiologists routinely advise patients to reduce stress and tension, and also direct the family of the patient to treat the individual as such.

  • Reducing alcohol, drug consumption

One of the popular pastimes for old people is alcohol, and for the more open-minded and creative ones, recreational drug use. Which can become a problem if an underlying heart condition already threatens the critical organ. Furthermore, its not just the older demographic that can get affected by an excessive usage of these; younger people and people with a family history of cardiac diseases are also at an equal risk of damaging their heart with an excessive use of alcohol and drugs. Including tobacco, which is heavily advertised as the chief contributor to the worldwide percentage of heart attacks and failures, drugs are sometimes considered more dangerous than alcohol to your cardiac health considering the wide variety of effects it could have on your cardiac system. Whereas alcohol is in itself a no-no compound for the heart, drugs actually take the cake for being the most damaging, and if one goes through an episode of heart failure or heart attack, smoking and alcohol is the first thing that gets blacklisted for the patient and drugs are particularly delisted because of their tendency to damage the heart more.

  • Managing, reducing weight

Weight is also one of the more crucial factors post-heart failure that needs to be managed in an effective way, so as to make sure that the heart continues performing even when a part of it has been directly affected. Weight puts more strain on the heart, even when you’re not exercising, because the muscles have to do a hard job of pulling around all that weight, which, of course, requires more oxygen, more nourishment and more blood. And since the heart has already been adversely affected, it is very likely that it will not last any longer if a part of it is dead and it has to now content with an even bigger distribution challenge. So, to minimize the negative effects of heart failure and to make sure that the heart stays healthy, your doctor will tell you to cut down on fats, oils and make sure to lose some fat so that the heart cannot be overexerted that much.

Follow these tips and natural ways and you could gain maximum usability out of a heart previously affected by congestive heart failure.