The treatment seeks to improve patients' quality of life and length of survival through lifestyle change and drug therapy. Patients can minimize the effects of heart failure by controlling the risk factors for heart disease. Obvious steps include quitting smoking, losing weight if necessary, abstaining from alcohol, and making dietary changes to reduce the amount of salt and fat consumed. Regular, modest exercise is also helpful for many patients, though the amount and intensity should be carefully monitored by a physician. But, even with lifestyle changes, most heart failure patients must take medication.
Many patients receive two or more drugs.
Digitalis increases the force of the heart's contractions, helping to improve circulation. Several large studies have indicated that ACE inhibitors improve survival among heart failure patients and may slow, or perhaps even prevent, the loss of heart pumping activity. Originally developed as a treatment for hypertension, ACE inhibitors help heart failure patients by, among other things, decreasing the pressure inside blood vessels. As a result, the heart does not have to work as hard to pump blood through the vessels. Sometimes, heart failure is life-threatening.