Medical Questions » Heart Questions » Question No. 507
| Question: | What is a congested heart? I am told I have one. My nose sometimes gets congested, but how can it happen to a heart? |
| Answer: | When your nose is congested, it becomes blocked and full of phlegm. In congestive heart failure, the heart is not pumping effectively, and as a result is cannot move the blood out of your lungs and around your body. It is therefore not your heart that is congested, but your lungs, which become blocked and overfull of blood. This leads to coughing and shortness of breath.
Medications, such as digoxin and Capoten, are used to strengthen the heart and help it pump the excess blood out of the lungs. Fluid tablets may also be used to help remove excess fluid from the body. It is a common problem in older people, but not normally a serious one, as medications can usually control it adequately if they are taken correctly.
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