By If you’re caring for a loved one with a heart condition, such as abnormal heart rhythms, pericardial disease, or aortic aneurysms, you may feel overwhelmed.Â
These feelings are normal, but we have some tips to help make caring for your loved one easier and more successful.Â
What Qualifies as Heart Condition?
Before discussing how to care for someone with a heart condition, let’s briefly define what qualifies as a heart condition or disease.
- Unstable angina
- History of heart attack
- History of stroke
- Heart failure
- Arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms)
- Valve disease
- High blood pressure
- Congenital heart conditions or disease
- Inherited heart conditions
- Coronary artery disease
- Pericardial disease
- Hypertensive heart disease
- Rheumatic heart disease
- Cardiomyopathy
- Aortic aneurysms
- Peripheral artery disease
- Thromboembolic disease
- Venous thrombosis
These are the most common heart diseases and conditions, but there are more. If you’re caring for a loved one with any of the above heart problems, the tips below can help.
Help Them Prevent The Exacerbation Of Their Symptoms
You can also support your loved ones who have a diagnosis of heart disease by helping them prevent its exacerbation. The following ways can help you get this done.
Encourage the intake of healthy food.Â
A balanced diet that is curated in consultation with the physician. Usually, a balanced diet that has vegetables, fruits, grains, healthy fats and lean proteins can help in keeping the heart healthy.
Specifically, colorful fruits and veegatbles have been known to promote heart health as they contain essential minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. Moreover, eliminate certain food items such as junk food, those containing trans and saturated fats, high sodium and added sugars.
These increase your chances of increasing cholesterol, causing hypertension and increasing your weight which are all risk factors. Â
Promote regular exercising.
Regular exercising can help control the risk factors, increasing cardiovascular health. Every week, aim to keep their physical activity in the 150-minutes to 75-minutes duration depending on whether they do moderate or vigorous exercise, respectively. This will help strengthen the muscles, both the cardiac and those present in the body. Some examples of versatile exercises that people of any age group can do are walking, cycling, and swimming.
Also keep a check on their weight.
When you are maintaining daily exercise, you will keep a healthy weight. Excess weight does not just increase the risk of heart disease and exacerbate the symptoms. You can help your family member by ensuring they follow a healthy lifestyle that revolves around eating healthy, staying active and avoiding poor habits.
Smoking
Talking about poor habits, smoking is the biggest enemy for everyone. Especially for those with a heart condition. So, make sure the individual is not smoking and gradually wean them off this habit if they were chain-smokers. You can also seek professional help to control smoking as they can suggest anti-smoking programs for them to successfully quit it.
Limit alcohol consumption.
This is another habit that can elevate the chances of exacerbating your symptoms. Consuming alcohol can increase the chances of high blood pressure, poor heart health and weight gain. Controlling the habit is a better option than over-consumption of alcohol. For majority of the adults, one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men is recommended.
Help them manage stress.
Managing stress is one of the ways to control their chances of worsening symptoms. Chronic stress is known to affect various aspects of our health. In case of people with heart conditions, stress is another risk factor that must be controlled.
You can promote relaxation activities if they are prone to stress so that they can avoid unhealthy coping behavior. Mindfulness strategies that can help them control stress, some examples include meditation, deep breathing, and yoga. This will help them maintain an overall wellbeing and heart health. Â
Ensure they go for regular checkups.
Check-ups are visits to the healthcare provider to know the status of the patient. This helps them determine if there should be any changes to the patient’s treatment plan. So, ensure your family member is adhering to the treatment plan and check-up appointments for proper management of the condition.
8 Tips for Caring for a Loved One With Heart Problems
Below are eight helpful tips for caring for your loved one.
1. Advocate for Them
Dealing with doctors, understanding treatment plans, and asking hard questions can be difficult for a person with a heart condition. You must advocate for them by making appointments, speaking with their doctors, asking questions about their condition and treatment, and overall acting as a liaison between your loved one and their healthcare professionals.
This is especially important when it comes to men’s health, as they are often less likely to seek medical attention and discuss health concerns openly. Not only does this take a huge weight off their shoulders, but it ensures you have a first-hand understanding of the care they need. Hearing the information second-hand can cause miscommunications or misunderstandings.
2. Listen and Talk to Them
Listen to your loved one’s needs and ask them what they are. While your primary responsibility is to care for their physical health, their emotional and mental needs are just as important.
Ask them frequently if there are any symptoms they’ve been experiencing or something that is making them unhappy. They may want to spend more time outside or see friends often, but you won’t know unless you ask or listen to what they tell you.
3. Acknowledge Their Hard Work
Many people with heart problems have to make drastic changes in their life. They must alter their diet, exercise regimen, medications, and many other aspects of their lives. Since these are things they simply have to do to stay healthy and alive, it’s still a considerable effort and it’s thoughtful to acknowledge this.
Your loved one may have been a devout carnivore before the diagnosis, so if they’re eating vegetables and grains at every meal, it can’t be easy. Tell them you’re proud of them and you know how hard it’s been to make these changes, but you love them and are glad they’re working hard to stay well. Small words of encouragement can go a long way.
4. Learn About the Condition and Medications
Since you will be part of the conversations with doctors, take this opportunity to ask questions about your loved one’s condition, symptoms, treatment options, and medications. You can never know too much, and don’t be afraid to ask, as that’s what healthcare professionals are there for!
You can also ask pharmacists about medications or do research online using reputable sites like The Heart Foundation site or the CDC website. The more you know, the more you can help your loved one remain healthy.
5. Know What Symptoms to Monitor
This tip goes hand in hand with the one above, but you must learn what symptoms to monitor and look out for. You may need to routinely check your loved one’s blood pressure, heart rate, and weight to ensure their heart condition is being managed properly.
Your loved one’s doctor will tell you what symptoms to keep an eye out for, such as leg swelling, sudden weight gain, chest pain, numb extremities, or back pain, to name a few. Know what symptoms to look for so you can get your loved one the proper care if something starts to go wrong.
6. Encourage Physical Activity
Depending on the heart condition, your loved one may need to get more physical activity to maintain or improve their weight and heart health.
Many people struggle to stick to an exercise schedule even when they’re perfectly healthy, so you may have to encourage your loved one to do the recommended physical activity. You can exercise with them to make it a bonding activity, and you can burn some calories! Discuss the best physical activities for your loved one with their doctor.
7. Focus On Nutrition
Along with regular exercise, your loved one will also need to improve their diet. As their caregiver, you can make them healthy meals and ensure they consume all the nutrition they need.
You can discuss the best type of diet with your doctor, but there are also many heart-healthy meal plans online that can guide you. But it’s not complicated. They should cut out red meat and foods high in sugar, and focus on vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and low-fat proteins.
8. Take Care of Yourself
Lastly, you cannot care for your loved one if you don’t care for yourself first. Ensure you eat well, care for your mental health, get enough sleep, and make time for yourself. While you may be the primary caregiver, you don’t have to do this alone. You can ask other family members to care for your loved one for a day or so if you need a break.
There are respite services that can care for your loved one so you can take time for yourself. And if you just need somewhere to vent about how stressful caregiving can be, join a local or virtual caregiver support group, where you can talk about the difficulties with people who understand and won’t judge you.
The Weight of Being a Caregiver
You must acknowledge that being a caregiver, especially for someone you love and care about, is a stressful and taxing job. There is no reason for you to feel guilty if you need a break or ask someone else for help.
When your loved one is diagnosed with heart rhythms, heart conditions, or diseases, you may feel overwhelmed, depressed, worried, isolated, or even guilty. But you must care for yourself and address your mental, physical, and emotional needs so that you can properly care for them.
Read Also:
What is your reaction?
