Study Reveals a Surprise for Heart Failure Patients

In findings that contradict current recommendations for their condition, researchers have revealed that heart failure patients do not benefit from restricting fluid intake.

Doctors in the United States and Europe have long advised heart failure patients to limit their fluid intake to approximately one and a half liters to help reduce fluid buildup in the lungs and extremities.

A Surprise for Heart Failure Patients

However, researchers said at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology that the evidence supporting such a practice is scant.

In a trial of 504 patients with mild to moderate heart failure, no differences in health status were found after three months between patients who did not restrict their fluid intake and those who did, according to Reuters.

A report on the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed that the trial also showed no differences in safety outcomes such as swelling or shortness of breath due to fluid buildup, which typically occurs when the heart is diseased or weakened and cannot pump blood efficiently.

Patients in the group that restricted fluid intake also reported experiencing thirst.

Key findings:

The trial showed a trend toward improved health among those who did not restrict fluid intake over the three months, but the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant and therefore may have been due to chance.

"Our conclusion is that patients with stable heart failure do not need to restrict fluids," said Dr. Roland van Kemmenaade, lead researcher of the study from Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in a statement.