What Do You Tell Your Patients about Diet & Exercise: Fireside Chat

The goal of this session is to explore current recommendations from the AHA/ACC/HFSA heart failure guidelines in the areas of diet and exercise, including sodium intake. We will then examine recently published research on the gut microbiome, its interplay with exercise, and its impact on cardiovascular health and heart failure.

We will also discuss the long-standing, widely accepted recommendation of a low-sodium diet, including the supporting evidence and potential harms. Finally, we will explore opportunities and challenges in conducting research in the areas of diet and exercise, along with key take-home messages for clinicians.

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate historical recommendations from emerging evidence regarding optimal sodium intake in heart failure and identify areas where current practice and patient education should be modified.
• Evaluate current clinical and translational research examining diet–microbiome–heart failure interactions.
• Assess potential clinical implications of microbiome research, including dietary modification, prebiotic/probiotic strategies, and future microbiome-directed therapies for patients with heart failure.
• Explain the relationship between gut microbiome alterations and skeletal muscle dysfunction in heart failure, including mechanisms involving systemic inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, and catabolic signaling pathways, as well as potential therapeutic targets.