To diagnose congestive heart failure a cardiologist will perform a physical exam and order diagnostic tests that may include electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, blood tests, MRI, cardiac catheterization or stress tests.

Congestive heart failure treatments may include medications such as beta-blockers to lower blood pressure and slow a rapid heartbeat, ACE inhibitors to improve blood flow and diuretics to reduce extra fluids.

Along with medication, lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise can be effective management tools for congestive heart failure. In more serious cases of congestive heart failure may require heart surgery such as angioplasty to open up narrowed arteries.

There are a number of lifestyle changes you can make to prevent congestive heart failure, or at least to slow its progress. These include eating a well-balanced diet, limiting sodium, getting enough exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.

A person with heart failure should be doing a daily weight check to monitor for fluid retention. Fluid retention is one of the biggest issues heart failure patients face.

You should aim to eat less than 2,000 milligrams of sodium daily - the average North American diet has about 4-5 thousand milligrams.