Heart failure symptoms vary depending on the kind and severity of your condition. Unless you are engaging in strenuous physical activity, mild heart failure may go undetected. Your symptoms may vary depending on whether you have left- or right-sided heart failure. However, both types of symptoms might occur. As your heart gets weaker, symptoms frequently get worse. Heart failure can result in severe, sometimes fatal consequences.
Early warning signs/symptoms:
- Feeling short of breath during ordinary tasks such as climbing stairs is one of the first signs you may experience.
- As heart becomes weak, you may notice breathing difficulties when getting dressed or moving about the room, and even while resting flat
- Left side heart failure: You may have trouble breathing, cough, extreme tiredness even after rest, general weakness, bluish finger and lips, sleepiness and trouble concentrating, inability to sleep while lying flat
- Right side heart failure: Nausea, loss of appetite, pain in stomach area, swelling in your ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, and the veins in neck, frequent urination, and weight gain.
If you have more than one or more of the above signs/symptoms, report them to your health care team and ask for an evaluation of your heart, even if you haven’t been diagnosed with any heart problems.
Reference:
- National Heart, Lung and Blood institute. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart-failure.
- American Heart Association. Heart attack and stroke symptoms. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-failure/warning-signs-of-heart-failure.
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