Consumer Reports On Health: Enjoy Life, Even with Heart Failure

Some 6.7 million Americans live with heart failure, a chronic condition in which the heart can’t pump as well as it should. This can lead to fluid buildup in your lungs and limbs, shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling in areas like your legs.

“I describe it as an inefficiency of the heart,” says Bethany Austin, MD, co-medical director of the Heart Failure Program and Heart Failure Quality at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. “Heart failure means your heart needs some help doing its normal job.”

Consumer Reports On Health talked to Dr. Austin and Austin Workman, ACSM-EP, CCRP, an exercise specialist at Saint Luke's, about strategies to improve quality of life for those living with heart failure.

Read the full Consumer Reports On Health article: Enjoy Life, Even with Heart Failure