 [ Symptoms ] is there any truth to the eggplant dinner before labor is there a pharmaceutical equivalent [ Disease ] heart failure is the result of poor cardiac function and is reflected by a decreased volume of blood pumped out by the heart called cardiac output heart failure can be caused by weakness of the heart muscle which pumps blood out through the arteries to the entire body or by dysfunction of the heart valves which regulate the flow of blood between the chambers of the heart the diminished volume of blood pumped out by the heart decreased cardiac output is responsible for a decreased flow of blood to the kidneys as a result the kidneys sense that there is a reduction of the blood volume in the body to counter the seeming loss of fluid the kidneys retain salt and water in this instance the kidneys are fooled into thinking that the body needs to retain more fluid volume when in fact the body already is holding too much fluid this fluid increase ultimately results in the buildup of fluid within the lungs which causes shortness of breath because of the decreased volume of blood pumped out by the heart decreased cardiac output the volume of blood in the arteries is also decreased despite the actual increase in the body is total fluid volume an associated increase in the amount of fluid in the blood vessels of the lungs causes shortness of breath because the excess fluid from the lungs blood vessels leaks into the airspaces alveoli and interstitium in the lungs this accumulation of fluid in the lung is called pulmonary edema at the same time accumulation of fluid in the legs causes pitting edema this edema occurs because the build up of blood in the veins of the legs causes leakage of fluid from the legs capillaries tiny blood vessels into the interstitial spaces an understanding of how the heart and lungs interact will help you to better comprehend how fluid retention works in heart failure the heart has four chambers an auricle and a ventricle on the left side of the heart and an auricle and ventricle on the right the left auricle receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and transfers it to the left ventricle which then pumps it through the arteries to the entire body the blood then is transported back to the heart by veins into the right auricle and transferred to the right ventricle which then pumps it to the lungs for re oxygenation left sided heart failure which is due primarily to a weak left ventricle usually is caused by coronary artery disease hypertension or disease of the heart valves typically when these patients initially come to the doctor they are troubled by shortness of breath with exertion and when lying down at night orthopnea these symptoms are due to pulmonary edema that is caused by pooling of the blood in the vessels of the lungs in contrast right sided heart failure which often is due to chronic lung diseases such as emphysema initially causes salt retention and edema persistent salt