A Hearty Life

Mark Herpel and Congestive Heart Failure - Part 2

by Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD on January 30th, 2007

Continuing with our interview with b5media’s Mark Herpel (see part 1), today we talk about his sodium-free diet and how it has helped him control the symptoms of congestive heart failure.

Hsien Lei (HL): You mentioned that your diet has been a challenge. What specifically have you had to change with respect to your diet and lifestyle? What did you used to like and can no longer indulge in?

Mark Herpel (MH): I have changed everything. I no longer eat out anywhere, all meals are in home. No canned items at all, no frozen meals, no beer and just about two glasses of wine a week. I have to look at the sodium on all products and I keep my sodium intake down below 1000mg per day. It is recommended to stay below 2000mg but the less sodium, the better I feel and it is a huge difference, huge.

Basically I eat oatmeal in the AM, plain chicken, unsalted butter, plain turkey and vegatables. I used to like salads, but the dressings all have way way too much sodium. If I could make my own dressing that would work. It would be super helpful if there was a recipe book or web with just no sodium meals on it. Not low sodium, I need no sodium. You just feel better without it, no water retention.

Also, 6 months after that first visit, my kidney’s got used to the lasix, so now I’m on a stronger fluid pill and I have to sleep with two or three pillows under my head so any fluid does not flow back into my lungs and then get stuffed into the heart while I lay down. It pretty much sucks knowing that the rest of my life will be spent this way. Also I will say it, because its a medical condition, the lack of blood flow causes severe depression in me so they give me daily a large does of Prozac :-) But not to worry the gun in the medicine drawer is not loaded :-)

HL: Have you ever tried sodium free salt substitutes like Also Salt? If so, what do you think of them?

MH: Yes, even before I was really sick I had tried them. It is Potassium Chloride (I think) and more than a tiny amount left a bad taste in my mouth so I don’t use it. I use garlic powder and crushed red peppers, usually hot ones. Big taste, no salt. Its also cheap and always available just about anywhere.

Its pretty easy to get used to ‘no salt’ but I now have to read all labels and anything with sodium I avoid, and that is everything in a can like soup or frozen since it has sodium as a preservative. Fresh garlic (chopped) and powdered garlic is about it for me.

The one really good thing out of it all is I can still eat steaks, ribs, pork and meats, but no salt. In other words, there is no blockage from cholesterol plaque, its just the weak heart. It really no fun to go out to a nice restaurant and ask for no salt, so I just stay in and not take any chances.

Salt is in everything! I can’t eat it so I was out with people and everyone at the table is eating big meals and I had a side salad and even then the dressing had too much sodium. I used to eat take out hamburgers when I could get them, now I find there is MSG and salt on them before even cooking, salt added after cooking. More sodium in one small burger than I eat in one day!

I’m really impressed that Mark has found a way to live life without salt. In fact, I think Mark should be the one to write a NO SALT cookbook!

Part 3 of Mark’s interview coming up tomorrow.

Tags: salt, sodium, diet, congestive heart failure, chf, heart, heart disease, diseases, illness, health, mark herpel

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POSTED IN: People With Heart Disease