Postholiday Heart Failure Triggered by Dietary Salt Excess

Messerli et al talk about the recently published article by Mahtani and colleagues that showed limited evidence of clinical improvement among patients with heart failure who reduced dietary salt intake, most likely owing to paucity of robust high-quality evidence. They cite that this may hold true for habitual salt intake; however, clinical data documenting detrimental effects of acute salt excess in patients with heart failure are more convincing. They explain how their original case report revealed increased heart failure admissions immediately following holidays such as Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. In contrast, the holidays themselves often note lower admission rates.