Heart Failure: Breathlessness, Meals and Care Notes
Understand heart failure and keep useful notes about breathlessness, swelling, meals and prescribed treatment while following your team's monitoring plan.
A short walk or a night's sleep can tell a different story from a clinic appointment. With heart failure, changes in that everyday story are worth sharing promptly.
Start your food and symptom diary
Understanding Heart failure
Heart failure means the heart is not pumping blood as effectively as it should. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Breathlessness, tiredness and swelling can occur. Tests help establish the cause and guide treatment. [1]
Care and everyday food decisions
Care may include medicines, procedures and support with activity and daily routines. Ask your team about salt, fluids and how to monitor weight; advice must be individual. A sudden weight change can reflect fluid, so do not treat it simply as a food or weight-loss issue. [1]
Keeping a useful personal record
If your team asks you to track weight, keep readings with their timing and your agreed action thresholds. Note changes in breathlessness, swelling, appetite and prescribed medicines. One Food Forward can organise the record, but does not alert your team or tell you to change a diuretic dose.
Related reading: High blood pressure; Coronary artery disease.
Should I drink more water because a food guide says so?
Follow your own heart-failure team's fluid advice. General advice may not fit your condition. Ask for written instructions on when a change should prompt a call. [1]
Keep the details somewhere you can find them
There is no need to tell the whole story at once. Start with today’s meal, a symptom or a few words about how you felt. Those small entries give you something to return to when it is time to talk about your care.
Sources and further reading
Your healthcare team should guide diagnosis, treatment and changes to your diet or medicines.
Spotted something that needs correcting? Contact One Food Forward support and include this page’s address.