The heart is often credited in pop culture as our source of passion, emotion, and love. In ancient Egypt, the heart was considered the center of life and morality, and its weight was the basis for your admission or denial into the afterlife. The ancient Greeks held that the heart was the center of life and heat. Mechanically speaking, however, the heart - arguably one of the most important organs for sustaining life - is our pump, pushing oxygen-rich blood throughout the body and recycling that blood through the lungs to be re-oxygenated once it has made its rounds.

The terms “heart failure” or “congestive heart failure,” while scary, are not cardiac arrest - where the heart has actually stopped or failed. Rather, they refer to an often long-term, chronic condition where the heart fails to function properly, and one or more chambers of the heart fail to keep up with the volume of blood flowing through them.

Causes of Heart Failure

Heart failure can be brought on by a number of underlying diseases or health problems, and symptoms of heart failure often begin slowly, appearing at first during periods of heavy physical activity and continuing to worsen until the symptoms are present even after periods of rest. In some cases, such as in the case of a heart that’s been damaged by a heart attack, the symptoms may appear suddenly.

The most common causes of heart failure are:

●    Coronary artery disease (CAD), which is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood flow and oxygen to the heart. This can weaken the heart muscle over time, or, depending on the severity of the narrowing, can cause immediate damage.

●    Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to problems with cardiac stiffness, which can eventually lead to the weakening of the heart muscle.