I was first diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure in 1986 and since Oct 2001, I have been on Social Security Disability because I am now Class III CHF. You can find lots of tried and true low sodium recipes and info about low sodium eating in general at http://www.chfpatients.com/ , along with tons of info about living with CHF. My former Heart Failure Specialist (who now practices in another geographic area).had checked out the site at my request and he said it was good solid information, and even recommended the site to some of his other patients. One thing to keep in mind with Heart Failure - even though you are restricting sodium, be aware that the patient is most probably on a fluid restricted diet as well. Typical CHF patients are under orders to take in no more than 2 liters of fluids a day in total. This not only includes drinks,but ice, broth, pudding, soup and jello count as fluids. The less fluid you drink (without dehydrating), the less blood your heart has to pump. And the less elimination necessary to prevent edema (swelling). For a CHF patient, it is imperative to keep both sodium and fluid intake in check. BTW, I was told by my Heart Failure Specialist that systolic (left side) heart failure is by far the most common presentation of heart failure in the general population. In the Pennsylvania Dutch descendants (like myself), it was found that there is a higher percentage of diastolic (right side) heart failure than in the heart failure population as a whole. Interesting, I thought. Regards, Karen from Berks County

Hey Karen! Haven't seen you posting to the list in a long time. Welcome back! :-) Rick B ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Fox To: padutch-life@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:29 AM Subject: [PD-LIFE] Low Sodium Diet and Heart Failure I was first diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure in 1986 and since Oct 2001, I have been on Social Security Disability because I am now Class III CHF. You can find lots of tried and true low sodium recipes and info about low sodium eating in general at http://www.chfpatients.com/ , along with tons of info about living with CHF. My former Heart Failure Specialist (who now practices in another geographic area).had checked out the site at my request and he said it was good solid information, and even recommended the site to some of his other patients. One thing to keep in mind with Heart Failure - even though you are restricting sodium, be aware that the patient is most probably on a fluid restricted diet as well. Typical CHF patients are under orders to take in no more than 2 liters of fluids a day in total. This not only includes drinks,but ice, broth, pudding, soup and jello count as fluids. The less fluid you drink (without dehydrating), the less blood your heart has to pump. And the less elimination necessary to prevent edema (swelling). For a CHF patient, it is imperative to keep both sodium and fluid intake in check. BTW, I was told by my Heart Failure Specialist that systolic (left side) heart failure is by far the most common presentation of heart failure in the general population. In the Pennsylvania Dutch descendants (like myself), it was found that there is a higher percentage of diastolic (right side) heart failure than in the heart failure population as a whole. Interesting, I thought. Regards, Karen from Berks County