Causes Of Congestive Heart Failure

Several causes of congestive heart failure exist that increase your risk of developing this disease. The causes may occur alone or along with other contributing conditions and diseases. Knowing what causes congestive heart failure allows you to seek medical attention to prevent heart failure and treat any existing heart failure problems.

1. Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) The most common cause of congestive heart failure is coronary artery disease. This disease occurs when fat deposits block the arteries from circulating blood normally. The blood attempts to push through the arteries and stretches out the heart. This stretching causes the heart to overwork and thwarts the pumping efforts, weakening the heart and resulting in heart failure.
2. Hypertension Also known as high blood pressure, hypertension contributes to congestive heart failure because the heart works over time to pump the blood through the body. This increase in pressure through the heart weakens the organ and causes congestive heart failure.
3. Diabetes While diabetes does not directly cause congestive heart failure, this condition does increase the risk of developing other diseases like CAD and hypertension that more directly cause heart failure.
4. Other Causes and Contributors Other conditions, medications and disorders also contribute to and cause congestive heart failure to occur. These causes include other heart diseases and disorders of the heart and parts of the heart, abusive alcohol use and the abuse of other medications like ibuprofen, naproxen, steroids and some diabetic medications. These other causes and contributors are less common, but may still cause heart failure to occur.