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What It Is
What To Do About It

(ejection fraction = EF)

When people have CHF, their hearts do a lousy job of beating and pumping blood around the body. With each beat, they simply don’t pump enough blood.

The average heartbeat pushes out a little more than a quarter of a cup (or, for you drinkers, about 1.5 shots) (or for you smart science types, about 70 ml).
Someone with congestive heart failure probably pumps out much less -- about 1/8 of a cup (or .75 shots) (or, for the science smart-people, 35 ml).

CHF With Preserved Ejection Fraction These hearts are plenty strong. But there’s a problem—They only hold about ½ (50%) of the blood they should. That’s because they’re “remodeled.” They’re like weight lifters. The more weight lifters lift weights, the bigger and bigger their muscles get. The same kind of thing happens with these hearts. Remember those blood vessels they pump into—the ones that are jammed up with blood because of high blood pressure? Each of those beats takes a lot of strength, just like lifting a dumbbell, or doing a bench press. So, pushing against those jammed up blood vessels, these hearts get “muscled up” just lie Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno. The average heart beats 115,000 times a day—that’s a lot of muscle building for any heart. The problem comes when they not only build up muscles on their outside, but on their inside too. Because that means they can’t hold a normal amount of blood to pump. While a healthy heart holds a little more than a quarter cup of blood for every beat, the CHF with preserved EF heart holds only about 1/8 of a cup for each beat—and that’s not enough!

What It Is

(ejection fraction = EF)

When people have CHF, their hearts do a lousy job of beating and pumping blood around the body. With each beat, they simply don’t pump enough blood.

The average heartbeat pushes out a little more than a quarter of a cup (or, for you drinkers, about 1.5 shots) (or for you smart science types, about 70 ml).
Someone with congestive heart failure probably pumps out much less -- about 1/8 of a cup (or .75 shots) (or, for the science smart-people, 35 ml).

How It Happens

CHF With Preserved Ejection Fraction These hearts are plenty strong. But there’s a problem—They only hold about ½ (50%) of the blood they should. That’s because they’re “remodeled.” They’re like weight lifters. The more weight lifters lift weights, the bigger and bigger their muscles get. The same kind of thing happens with these hearts. Remember those blood vessels they pump into—the ones that are jammed up with blood because of high blood pressure? Each of those beats takes a lot of strength, just like lifting a dumbbell, or doing a bench press. So, pushing against those jammed up blood vessels, these hearts get “muscled up” just lie Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno. The average heart beats 115,000 times a day—that’s a lot of muscle building for any heart. The problem comes when they not only build up muscles on their outside, but on their inside too. Because that means they can’t hold a normal amount of blood to pump. While a healthy heart holds a little more than a quarter cup of blood for every beat, the CHF with preserved EF heart holds only about 1/8 of a cup for each beat—and that’s not enough!

What To Do About It

Do something about your CHF without preserved EF Two kinds of medications help with CHF w/o preserved EF
    • ACE inhibitors (Lisinopril, Enalapril, Carvedilol, etc.) do two things.
      1. They open up those constricted, narrowed blood vessels. That makes it easier for the heart to pump blood into them They’re kind of “mini-water pills.” They make you pee out some of the water that mixes with blood and jams up the blood vessels—making it hard for your heart to pump blood into them.
    • Beta blockers (Metoprolol, Carvedilol, etc.) do two things too.
      1. They open up those constricted, narrowed blood vessels. That makes it easier for the heart to pump blood into them.
      2. They slow down the heartbeat, giving the heart more time to fill up with blood, so it has more blood to pump out with each beat.

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