My CHF makes sleeping difficult. What can I do?
We are sorry to hear about your difficulty getting good sleep and rest with your congestive heart failure (CHF). Many people with CHF have trouble lying flat and seem to have the most trouble breathing while lying in bed. In many cases, we find people propping themselves up with pillows or sleeping in recliners to help alleviate the difficulty breathing.
You should really let your cardiologist or healthcare provider know that you are having trouble with your breathing at night. This may be an indicator that it is time to make some adjustments to your CHF medications. It is more effective to treat the cause of the symptoms, which is the CHF, than try to temporarily alleviate the symptoms by propping yourself up at night.
We hope you will be getting some good sleep soon!
Ask your cadiologist if a CPAP machine would help your night time breathing issues...
Take the herb Arjuna. It helps strengthen the heart muscle and increases the ejection fraction (blood pumped out of the heart) I have CHF and have been using this for 8+ months. I had an echocardiogram when I started and one every 4 months. EF increased 5% each time and my enlarged heart has shrunk by 1.5 points, so far. I use Himalaya brand Arjuna from HimalayaUSA.com and I take 4 tablets per day. There are studies showing effectiveness.
As for sleeping and shortness of breath, I take 80mg of my diuretic, fursomide, in the early evening, it makes breathing easier.
I have suffered Congestive heart failure and COPD and have diabetes type2. Recently I developed extreme back pains because of kidney stones. My doctors also discovered that I have a Gr.2 enlarged prostate.. After hearing from some of my friends the value of INCLINED BED THERAPY,I tried it and I was totally relieved of back pains, my blood sugar and prostate became normal, and have total restful nights of quality sleep free from any breathing difficulty. I find this technique discovered in 2006 so amazing and I want to share this blessing with everyone.
My husband was diagnosed with CHF September of '09. The year before he almost died twice from a bowel rupture and later that same year, he was involved in a major car accident. His whole life was changed in a matter of seconds due to the neglience of one man. Needless to say, we were doing as well as we could til that next year when my husband began to have shortness of breath....it just happened overnight. His primary care doctor never once considered his problem to be heart related but I had my suspicions and after seeing this doctor 3 times in one week, I decided to make an appointment with a cardiologist.Before my husband was able to see this doctor, he ended up in our ER. It was then that we got the diagnosis. We were both shocked and I felt that someone had hit me over the head with a brick! Well, after getting hold of my emotions, I got onto the internet and began doing research. I can only thank the good Lord above for leading me to Dr. Bruce West's website the rest is history. I began giving the supplements that Dr. West suggested and from my husband's EF of 15%, he is now somewhere between 35 and 40%. We couldn't be happier. My husband does take 3 prescription meds but I truly feel that the supplements have helped the most. Now he goes to bed, never has problems with shortness of breath unless he gets upset or over does something. He goes for an Echo in February and we'll see how much more improvement he's got. Don't underestimate supplements, the heart is a muscle and needs proper nutritients to make it strong. God bless all who are dealing with this condition but there is hope.
Beware: Dr. Bruce West is listed on Quackwatch.com link: http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/Nonrecorg/narb.html He is a chiropractor NOT a doctor of medicine.
Go get em Mustang Sally. I have used Dr. West's advice and he is solid. Quack Watch is Out to Lunch ! I posted earlier in this chain and I am now writing an e-book about what I have done to recover from CHF. In my research I found this quote, which pretty much sums up the issue. "The January 2001 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine came out and admitted that only nutritional programs can reverse heart disease and reverse damage done to the heart."
My mom has been diagnosed with chf. She is on oxygen 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The doctor is having her do a sleep study, he thinks she has sleep apnea. She has problems going to sleep and staying asleep. So she may be put on a cpap machine.
It is never a bad idea to have a sleep study done to rule out sleep apnea for having it can cause many problems. If this is not the issue with your mom then I definitely would go to Dr. West's website and start your mom on his protocol. The supplements he recommends have been around since 1920 and come from a very reliable source. In the mean time get your mom some COQ-10 and give her 600 mg. daily in divided doses. This is one thing I have been giving my husband, it strengthens the heart muscle. I also give my husband d-ribose for it is given to people who have suffered heart attacks and again strengthens the heart muscle. I get the 750 mg. capsules and he gets 2 capsules with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Has your mom been given a water pill? Fluid builds in the lungs when the heart is weak so this is very much needed. Lasix was the first water pill my husband was given and it helped greatly and he was able to lie down to sleep. He now takes spironolactone once a day due to his cardiologist concerned about my husband's kidneys; as Lasix is hard on them. So far, so good :) Just earlier this week, he was feeling his heart skipping beats and feeling strange, no chest pains just an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. I called his cardiologist but they were out of the office so got the answering service. Within 5 minutes of making that call, the doctor who was on call, called us back. He felt that my husband's heart is getting stronger and to cut back on his Coreg, which we did. So far so good again. My husband goes in in February for an Echo. We are hopeful that we will see more improvement. Do your research for your mom for there is a lot of very good information on the internet....I've learned so much in the 2 years that my husband has had his heart condition. Knowledge is power, it truly is, go for it! My thoughts are with you and your mom and I'd love to hear how she makes out with her test etc.
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