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Nutrition for Congestive Heart Failure
For people with CHF, Joseph Pizzorno Jr., N.D., recommends consuming no more than 1,800 milligrams of sodium a day. The average American consumes at least twice that much. Most of that amount-a full 75 percent-comes from salty processed foods: fast foods, canned soups and sauces, lunchmeats, frozen dinners, and snack foods.
If you're accustomed to salting everything, your food may seem too bland when you begin cutting back. You can make your own seasoning blend by combining a small amount of salt with herbs and spices.
Get more magnesium. If you have CHF, chances are that you have low blood levels of magnesium. The disease itself depletes the mineral, as do diuretic medications, the kind that help control blood pressure and relieve swelling. A magnesium deficiency can actually aggravate CHF symptoms, according to a study conducted at Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York in New York City. To increase your magnesium intake, clinical nutritionist Shari Lieberman, Ph.D., suggests eating more magnesium-rich foods. These include wheat germ, soybeans, oatmeal, nuts, seeds, low-fat dairy items, and seafood.
Pick up more potassium. Like magnesium, potassium can be depleted by CHF as well as by diuretic medications. And when you have low potassium, your blood pressure can go up, which spells trouble for anyone with CHF. To get more potassium in your diet, Dr. Lieberman suggests eating lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, low-fat dairy items, and fish.
Emphasize thiamin. Low levels of thiamin, a B vitamin, contribute to sodium retention and heart failure. Older people are at greatest risk for thiamin deficiency. They also have the highest rate of CHF When researchers at the University of South Florida in Tampa examined 30 healthy older people, half of the group had thiamin levels low enough to aggravate CHF.
An easy way to increase your thiamin intake is to eat more thiaminrich foods. Good sources of the vitamin include beans, peas, peanuts, whole grains, eggs, fish, and poultry.
Sip, don't guzzle. If you have CHF, you don't want to drink too much, because your body is retaining fluid. But restricting your fluid intake can be tricky. Cutting back too much can lead to dehydration, which causes problems of its own-especially among older people.
Ileana L. Pina, M.D., director of cardiomyopathy and cardiac rehabilitation at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, urges people with CHF to limit their fluid consumption to 2 quarts a day. When you feel thirsty, don't pour yourself a tall glass of water. Instead, suck on an ice pop or a few ice chips, Dr. Pina suggests. Or suck on hard candies or chew gum to stimulate salivation.
