- Heart failure as a syndrome means
that there is either the inability of the heart
to pump sufficient blood to the organs,
where there's not sufficient blood flow to the muscles,
your skeletal muscles, and you feel weak and tired.
But it also can lead to a state
where the only way to get the blood
to your organs is at the cost
of increasing pressure within the heart.
Those pressures that become increased in the heart back up
into the lungs
and people then can feel very short of breath.
So cardinal manifestations of heart failure
end up being shortness of breath or weakness.
But heart failure is preventable in many ways.
And even when identified, you can modify its course.
First and foremost is trying to diagnose
what got the patient to their syndrome.
Is it a issue of a weaker heart?
Is it issue of a stiffer heart?
What are the risk factors that led to that?
Heart failure no longer is a death sentence.
It is a high risk clinical syndrome,
but with careful attention and care,
we provide treatments and pathways for patients
to mitigate the risk and prolong life
in a way that was only a dream when I started.
So it is, I think, important for patients
when they have symptoms like shortness of breath
and increasing fatigue to recognize it's not just aging.
We have so much more to offer
if we can find people earlier.
(bright music)