Heart Failure and Fluid Retention: What You Should Know

Heart failure and fluid retention often go hand in hand. With heart failure, your heart muscle pushes out less blood than it should. This leaves extra blood in your heart that makes it difficult for additional blood to enter. Faced with this dilemma, your body takes matters into its own hands.

As a workaround, your body releases fluid from the blood vessels. The extra fluid seeps out of blood vessels into nearby tissue, where it gathers. You then wind up with edema, a condition commonly called fluid retention.

Fortunately, you can recognize this buildup and take steps to reduce it.

Signs You’re Retaining Fluid

The most common symptom of edema is swelling in the legs, ankles or feet. However, your swelling may affect your face, hands or other body part. Unlike other swelling, edema swelling shows up without any traumatic injury.

Long-term edema can cause the following:

• Constant discomfort
• Limited range of motion in affected areas
• Weight gain

Heart failure can also lead to fluid retention where you can’t see it. Fluid accumulation in the lungs is pulmonary edema. Symptoms include:

• Abnormal sounds when breathing, such as wheezing or grunting
• Cough that contains blood
• Difficulty breathing when lying down
• Shortness of breath
• Waking up in the night with shortness of breath

4 Ways to Reduce Fluid Retention With Heart Failure

Managing heart failure and fluid retention starts at home. Your provider will likely recommend one or more of the following treatments: 1. Change your diet. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Americans consume 3,400 mg of sodium daily. Too much sodium can worsen edema, as sodium increases the amount of fluid your body retains. A low-sodium diet may help. Read food labels and aim for 1,500 mg to 2,300 mg of sodium each day.

2. Compress. Wearing compression stockings helps push blood up your legs and toward your heart. This improves blood flow and reduces fluid buildup in the legs.

3. Elevate. If you have swelling in the leg, ankle or foot, you may benefit from changing the position of your body. Try lying down and raising your legs higher than your heart. Do this for half an hour a few times every day.

4. Medicate. A specific medication can help rid your body of excess fluid. Known as diuretics or water pills, this medication causes you to urinate more frequently. Because you urinate more than usual, you can become dehydrated or experience an electrolyte imbalance. Contact your provider if you feel lightheaded, notice an increased heart rate or have other side effects.

5. Monitor. Weigh yourself when you first wake up. Then, do it again before and after you eat and use the restroom. Write down your weight every time, and contact your provider if you gain two or more pounds in a day or five pounds in a week.

Have you been diagnosed with heart failure? Find a provider at Union Health who can help manage your condition.