Doctors have been dispensing advice to heart failure patients, and for the first time researchers have found that it works. While self-care is believed to improve heart failure outcomes, a highlight of the recent American Heart Association scientific statement on promoting heart failure self-care was the need to establish the mechanisms by which self-care may influence neurohormonal, inflammatory, and hemodynamic function.

The new research shows that heart failure patients who followed doctor's advice for self-care (such as taking medications, monitoring and interpreting symptoms, eating a low-sodium diet, and exercising) showed lower levels of myocardial stress and systemic inflammation, thought to be associated with greater risk of mortality, urgent ventricular assist device implantation, and urgent heart transplantation.More »