I Have Your Synopsis Here and Have Read It

Hi Paul,

I have your synopsis here and have read it.

You're an asset to the seniors around you. It's good you're there to give them a boost in the right direction.

At Megaheart, our goal is to help others as you seem to want to do. We deal with CHF and other heart diseases. We also deal with Meniere's Syndrome, Nephrotic disease, kidney, and other diseases that require a no-salt and very low-sodium lifestyle.

Megaheart was the first Web site to deal with any of these efforts with a push on no-salt and low-sodium. The No Salt, Lowest Sodium Cookbook was the first ever of its kind and remains the leader in the book industry and among dietitians, nurses and doctors who deal with no salt maladies. However, there are hundreds of new sites, blogs, and efforts by others to attempt the same thing. Some are good, some aren’t.

We try to guide those who have the motivation to take care of themselves into a life without salt and with lower sodium; a life without having to use diuretics and therefore no potassium tablets (required when taking diuretics).I haven't hadeither of these in five years since I maintain a below 500 mg of sodium a day diet. It's not difficult and it pays off health wise.

My personal CHF condition includes arrhythmia difficulties (A-Fib and PVCs), half of my heart is considered "dead" although it's pumped by a pacemaker into working, making me pacemaker dependent. My shortness of breath is due to the arrhythmia challenge and not to fluids. I consume 64-ounces of fluids a day and still I'm "bone dry." If I don’t consume the fluids, I pass out from dehydration. A fine balance, indeed.

Viewing all this from my perspective alone, which is basically how most of us operate, would not be successful when trying to help others. Imust therefore adjust that perspective to balance with the needs of others.I’ve had help. In the past 10 years of our online service at megaheart.com I have read more than a few thousand notes. I receive anywhere from ten a day upwards to a high of nearly a hundred. I respond to each.

And each visitor has their own story and their own unique challenges to face. Indeed you could write a book about CHF and other closely related diseases from just these notes. They include patients from other countries as well: Canada, France, Japan, India, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Holland and others.

But for reasons of confidence and privacy I can’t share many of these notes. I wish I could.

You’d read about women with CHF who can barely walk but have a family of children and a spouse who refuses to help her. You’d read about patients in areas in this country where medical care is so limited or seems so primitive that the patients have not gotten proper care and the next note we receive is that they have passed away. Letters from Latvia and Bulgaria and even Canada where they cannot get medications to help them. Many Canadians cross the border and flood north state pharmacies with purchases.

Some with CHF and other maladies refuse to live with a McDonald’s hamburger. (That kind of note has happened often.) Others have diabetes, CHF, and kidney ailments concurrently.

Others have cardiomyopathy, one or more missing limbs and demonstrate a spirit to live higher than those who have less.

Some write with a hopelessness that is depressing while others are flying high just because they were able to extend their lives one year.

We get hundreds of unsolicited testimonials that are posted at Megaheart.com (with each sender’s permission). These notes come from those who have used either our books and our free Web site or both and are more than a little joyful because even their doctors are “surprised” at their improvement. And those notes include telling us it was all due to our book and our diet plan.

Those are nice notes, but I write back that the reason they have been successful is due to their own actions. They took charge. They grabbed hold of the ring and said, “I can do this.” And they did it.

And each and everyone of them had a different challenge although CHF might have been the basic diagnosis. Each and everyone had a different perspective on life, pursuit of survival, and how to deal with their future.

If you’re planning on a book about CHF, you face a daunting challenge. A book that can help others is always a good deed and always a challenging effort.

I do wish you well with the effort and would very much like to read it when you finish.

Thank you for your note. Please do keep us up to date concerning your effort.

Donald Gazzaniga