Causes of
Heart Failure Based on TCM:
At present, the conventional therapeutic approaches in HF management include angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, β-blockers, and diuretics. Although several of them have led to an important effectiveness, HF remains the leading cardiovascular disease with an increasing hospitalization burden and an ongoing drain on health care expenditure. Therefore, it remains necessary to search alternative and complementary treatment, in which Traditional Chinese Medicine takes a good proportion.
In TCM theory, pathogenesis of HF is related to deficiency of heart yang and heart qi and stasis of blood and excessive water (fluid), as well as interaction within these pathological factors. Under physiological conditions, yang can promote water metabolism, while qi can accelerate blood circulation, so yang and qi are the vital elements for human body to maintain life activity. TCM theory holds that patients suffered from HF are in deficiency of heart yang and qi for a long course, which directly leads to excessive fluid retention and blood stasis
Causes of Heart Failure in Western Medicine:
There are lots of reasons why you might be diagnosed with heart failure. It can be sudden or it can happen slowly over months or even years. The most common causes are:
Heart attack
High blood pressure
Cardiomyopathy (diseases of the heart muscle. Sometimes these are inherited from your family and sometimes they are caused by other things, such as viral infections).
Heart failure can also be caused by:
Heart valve problems
Alcohol or recreational drugs
An uncontrolled irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia)
Congenital heart conditions (ones you’re born with)
A viral infection affecting the heart muscle
Some cancer treatments.
If you are having treatment for cancer and have a heart condition, or have been told that your treatment may affect your heart, you might find Heart health and cancer treatment helpful. It's a new booklet jointly produced by Macmillan Cancer Support and the British Heart Foundation and you can order free copies online from Macmillan Cancer Support.