Parade – Heart Failure

It’s Possible To Reverse Heart Failure—Here’s What That Means, According to Cardiologists

When you hear a word like “failure,” especially in the context of “heart failure,” it’s easy for your mind to turn dark. It sounds daunting and untreatable. Those are pretty scary thoughts (to understate it), and they often feel permanent.

Thankfully, when it comes to heart health, that’s not necessarily the case: Heart failure can be reversed. But the logistics of that are slightly complicated, since heart failure isn’t a simple condition.

“When people ask whether heart failure can be reversed, the honest answer is sometimes, and the underlying reasons [for that heart failure] matter,” says Dr. Ahmed M. Seliem, MD, a clinical cardiologist, interventional cardiologist and heart failure specialist at Cooper and Inspira Cardiac Care. “Heart failure isn’t one disease; it’s what happens when the heart has been injured and then remodeled itself in a harmful way over time.” Types of heart failure include systolic, diastolic, acute, chronic, left-side and right-side failure.

Have more questions now than before? That’s OK. Explaining each type of heart failure is a whole other topic, so let’s focus on what heart failure reversal is, generally speaking. Ahead, cardiologists explain what “reversing” heart failure means, steps a person can take to reverse heart failure and factors that make a reversal more likely (plus, some common misunderstandings).