Symptoms of congestive heart failure

 
 









Symptoms of congestive heart failure have a great impact on a person’s life, considering this is a progressive and eventually fatal medical condition. Nowadays, in the economic well developed countries, people die because of the heart problems, more then they do from any other cause. It is important to know that symptoms of congestive heart failure have a fluctuating evolution: there are episodes with severe symptoms, followed by long periods of time when the situation is stable, nevertheless, even if people recover from the acute phase, they can’t return to the previous level of functionality. Also, it is very important to mention that is difficult to predict how much time is left to live once the diagnosis is established, because sudden death isn’t uncommon in these patients. Heart failure is not just a disease of an one individual, but a disease that affects the entire family.

What do you know about symptoms of congestive heart failure?

If you are one of the patients suffering from congestive heart failure, you should be informed about the symptoms of congestive heart failure and when to sick medical help. Every readmission to the hospital will increase mortality; there are medical articles that suggest a 20-30% increase of this risk with every readmission. You may experience shortness of breath during effort (exertion dyspnea), during night (nocturnal paroxysmal dyspnea) or even when you rest( in the advanced stages of the congestive heart failure). At the beginning, shortness of breath occurs only during great effort, but in time, daily activities that once were performed very easily, like dressing, shaving, eating etc, can produce shortness of breath and force the patient to give up on his/her social life and depend on other person’s help. Another form of rest dyspnea is orthopnea, meaning that you can’t breathe while lying in the bed and you require elevation of the head with pillows.
Other symptoms of congestive heart failure are palpitations, rapid heart beats, fatigue, fainting, blue coloring of the lips or limb extremities, accumulation of water in the limbs tissues (this  condition is called edema) lungs, pleural and abdominal cavities, heart murmurs.
Because heart can’t deliver enough blood to muscles, patients will experience weakness and heaviness in the limbs. A low blood flow to the kidneys will determine oliguria (diminished amount of urine), this condition appears in advanced stages, when the cardiac output is severely reduced.
Cerebral manifestations of low cardiac output are also symptoms of congestive heart failure: headaches, insomnia, confusion, memory impairment, anxiety or nightmares. In more severe cases, patients experience other symptoms of congestive heart failure that require special medical care: hallucinations, delirium, disorientation.
In the end, we will present a list with a few symptoms of congestive heart failure, which may guide patients to require medical help (they were published in a guide for caregivers, by The Washington Home Center for Palliative Care Studies):

• gain of 3 pounds or more within a few days or a week,
• increased swelling in hands, ankles or feet,
• difficulty breathing at any time or coughing at night,
• decreased urination,
• confusion, dizziness, or faintness,
• nausea or vomiting,
• increased fatigue,
• muscle cramps or weakness,
• any distressing symptom.

For more info on symptoms of congestive heart failure check with your doctor.

Flu symptoms in adults

Flu symptoms in adults- different faces of the same disease

In the last years more and more people complain from flu symptoms and every year new vaccines are elaborated. People started to be very worried about flu symptoms in adults especially after the outbreaks of avian flu and AH1N1 virus, even if the “common” flu virus could cause death too. Because of the large number of people vaccinated, contradictory opinions about the efficiency and possible complications coming from the vaccination began to appear  and the result was that many people refused the vaccine.
People also searched for ways to strengthen the immunity system and they choose to use different types of medication based on plants. In clinical practice, because of the large number of patients that died even if they had no risk factors associated, doctors started to treat pneumonia with antiviral and antibiotic medication. But the more the antiviral medication is used, the more the risk of developing resistance to this treatment increases.

Next we will talk about flu symptoms in adults and its complication.

Why are we so concerned about flu symptoms in adults? For many of us, flu is just a common disease; we all had it at some point and as some use to say it lasts 7 days if you treated or one week if you don’t. But are flu symptoms in adults so insignificant that doesn’t worth talking about? This is a false idea among us that flu symptoms in adults are common manifestations. The truth is that in some people flu symptoms in adults can be as devastating as cancer or heart disease.
The main flu symptoms in adults:

• fever-some wrongly believe that fever is determined only by bacterial infection. It is a wrong idea, both viruses and bacteria can determine high fever and they can disseminate to other organs through blood,
• shivers- the feeling of body shaking
• sweating-the body tries to lose some water in order to decrease the temperature,
• headaches
• rhinorhea-water discharge from the nose as we call it
• cough-first it can start as a dry cough, but  in a few days expectoration can appear, considering that even viral infection can determine a secondary bacterial infection,
• sore throat with pains that increase while trying to swallow
• severe aches and pains in muscle and joints
• generalized weakness and fatigue, feeling the need of lying down,
• being unable to eat,
• nausea and vomiting.

Flu symptoms in adults usually last a few days (about a week), but in some cases other complication can occur:

• pneumonia- a flu symptom in adults that seems simple to deal, can  get complicated with a lower respiratory tract infection like pneumonia. In patient with reduced immunity as are those suffering from AIDS, these infections can be fatal, even if for many of us it can be a common disorder.
• invasion of the virus in other organs through blood flow, which leads to a condition called septicemia, one of the worst flu symptoms in adults and an important threat to patient’s life,
• meningitis-if the viruses reach the nervous system, they can determine meningitis, which is an infection of the tissues layers that cover the brain and are called meninges.
• shortness of breath or fast breathing, bluish skin color (the blood hasn’t enough oxygen)
• neurologic symptoms: dizziness, drowsiness, confusion
• fulminant myocarditis
• pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the pulmonary arteries) seems to be linked to the infection determined by AH1N1 virus,

Complications are more common in people suffering from respiratory, cardiac disease obesity and of course, those with diminished immunity (like patients with AIDS).
As we saw, flu symptoms in adults can be common or can be very serious, depending of the aggressiveness of the virus, the immunity system of the host, the risk factors associated, but it is important to remember that it can be fatal (about 40.000 people died every year, in USA, in the past 20 years, because of the flu).

7 weeks pregnant symptoms

Pregnancy is a fascinating news for the future parents, as a child is a blessing for every family and a miracle of life. But every miracle has its own price and the nine month until it is brought to real life can be very exhausting for the mother as she has to make important changes in her life, together with the changes made in her body.
This article is mainly about the 7 weeks pregnant symptoms but we should specify that many times women find out they are pregnant after they are investigated for tiredness, morning sickness, nausea and vomiting (many times confused with a digestive disorder). Once they find out they are pregnant they begin to be worried about what is going to happen next, “is the baby all right?” ”doesn’t he/she suffering from a malformation”, “when will he/she move?”, “how does it feel when u have contractions”, “how will I gave birth, where?” etc. These are only a few questions young mother ask more often, but there are many others.

The main 7 weeks pregnant symptoms

What are the 7 weeks pregnant symptoms ? Before we enumerate  the 7 weeks  pregnant symptoms we should mention some information about the baby. At this age, your baby will measure about 4-5 mm, but by the end of the week he/she will grow significantly to about 13 mm. Even if the changes in your body aren’t so obvious, you will feel pregnant as other symptoms occur. One of the 7 weeks pregnant symptoms is weight gain, even if at this point it is just 1 or 2 pounds.
Other 7 weeks pregnant symptoms-the baby’s growth: the uterus has doubled its size, the neural tube is closed and the development of brain begins in this week, also nasal cavities and mouth are forming. The heart is already formed and the heart valves are about to be completed, the future lungs are growing and the intestines and digestives system begin to take shape, as other glands. By the week 7, limbs are visible on the echography, even the future fingers and toes and by the end of the week a smooth layer of skin will develop.
The 7 weeks pregnant symptoms include varied signs and symptoms as we will see next. One of the most frequent manifestations among 7 weeks pregnant symptoms is morning sickness (a symptom that usually occurs between 2-8 weeks after conception). This is one of the 7 weeks pregnant symptoms but can occur even from the first week and will diminish in time. As it happens frequently in medicine, there are exceptions: some women don’t have morning sick, nausea or vomiting during pregnancy, while others deal these symptoms throughout all of their pregnancy. The morning sickness will grow stronger in  weeks, the nausea will be moderate, also vomiting frequently occurs. Digestive symptoms must be carefully managed, as pregnancy is often associated with appendicitis, cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder) or urinary stones.

Other manifestations among 7 weeks pregnant symptoms:

• fatigue-a symptom that can occur early in the pregnancy, even from the first week. Pregnant women feel more tired, even if they don’t make any effort, and the need of lying down and sleep is more intense, but this doesn’t mean they are sick; it is simply one of the changes related to pregnancy.
• headaches-hormonal imbalance related to pregnancy is the cause of these symptoms that can occur early in the pregnancy and usually tend to go away in the second trimester. Lack of sleep or dehydration, smoking, strong odors, chocolate, coffee, stress tends to play also a role in this. Some of the women experience intense headaches or even migraine (before taking any medication, you should consult your doctor to see the risks and benefits)
• excessive salivation-it is more frequent in women that experience morning sick.
• metallic taste-it is a less frequent 7 weeks pregnant symptoms, caused by hormones imbalance, and usually goes away in the second trimester.
• frequent urination- it is normal and it is caused by hormones imbalance. Also the amount of blood is larger in pregnant women, so the kidneys have a lot more to work.
• swollen or tender breasts, darkening of areolas -may start after 1-2 weeks after conception.
• lower backaches
• food craving or food aversion to certain types of food that can last the entire pregnancy not just for 7 weeks pregnant symptoms.

As we saw above, 7 weeks pregnant symptoms vary from one woman to another and seem unbearable for outsiders, but these symptoms are all forgotten once the mother holds her “miracle” in her arms.