Heart Failure Treatments

Making healthy lifestyle changes is an easy way for patients living with heart failure to improve their overall heart health. As part of your personalized heart-healthy treatment plan, our experts may recommend some of the following changes:

• Avoiding tobacco and drugs: Staying away from smoking and addictive drugs improves your heart health within a matter of months. It also reduces your chances for lung cancer and can improve your breathing symptoms.
• Eating a heart-healthy diet: By adding more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to your meal plan, you ensure you’re getting the crucial vitamins you need for your heart health.
• Getting regular exercise: Staying active with doctor-approved activities is crucial to maintaining your heart health. It also helps against the loss of muscle mass and with water retention.
• Limiting alcohol: Drinking minimal amounts of alcohol helps alleviate your heart failure symptoms and can improve your overall quality of life.
• Managing your fluid intake: Tracking how much water, coffee, or tea you drink daily helps you stay on top of your liquid intake, avoiding aggravation of symptoms like fluid retention.
• Monitoring your blood pressure: Knowing your blood pressure numbers is an important part of maintaining your heart health. We’ll help you get the confidence you need to manage your blood pressure at home.
• Practicing healthy sleep habits: Getting enough rest each night is an important part of maintaining your heart health. It can also improve cognitive symptoms associated with heart failure, like brain fog or confusion.
• Staying up to date on vaccinations: Protecting yourself against viral illnesses, like flu, COVID-19, and pneumonia, is crucial to managing your health and wellness when living with heart failure. Stay safe year-round to avoid potentially deadly symptoms like inflammation.
• Tracking symptoms: No one knows your health like you. Keeping an eye on any changes in symptoms that impact your daily life is crucial. If you have any new or worsening symptoms, contact your care team right away.

When medications and lifestyle changes aren’t enough, our specialists may recommend advanced therapies or procedures to help your heart work more efficiently. These may include:

• Cardiac bypass surgery: Restores healthy blood flow to the heart.
• Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT): Uses a specialized pacemaker to help your heart beat in rhythm.
• Cardio contractility modulation (CCM) therapy: Strengthens heart contractions and improves function.
• Chronic inotropic therapy: Improves heart strength in patients with advanced heart failure.
• Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD): Monitors and corrects dangerous heart rhythms.
• Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI): Opens blocked arteries with a small balloon or stent.
• Valve surgery: Repairs or replaces damaged heart valves.