Losing weight lowers blood pressure and gives a fatigued heart a break. Regular exercise is key to weight control. Exercise burn calories and also raises your basal metabolic rate, how quickly you burn calories while resting. However, if you have CHF, Dr. Pina recommends a physician-supervised weight control program, especially if you're taking diuretic medication below. Social support .
Heart failure is scary.
Social support can help keep the anxiety of CHF under control. At Yale, Harland Krumholz, M.D., an associate professor of medicine, analyzed the medical records of 292 elderly women who had been hospitalized for heart failure within two years of participating in a larger study of emotional support. Compared with the women who reported the most support in the earlier survey, those who were most socially isolated reported eight times more suffering from CHF symptoms. They also had the highest death rate from CHF in the year after their initial hospitalization. If they did not die, they were significantly more likely to be hospitalized again.