What foods should heart patients avoid during Tet?

Don't be too happy, too sad

Answering the question of what patients with cardiovascular diseases should do, what diet and medication regimen to have a happy and healthy Tet holiday?, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai, Director of the National Heart Institute, Bach Mai Hospital, shared some notes for cardiovascular patients during the Tet holiday of At Ty 2025.

Heart patients need to follow their doctor's instructions on diet, lifestyle and medication. (Illustration photo).

Accordingly, cardiovascular patients need to comply with treatment medication, take medication on time, and not arbitrarily stop or change dosage, even when busy.

With a diet, you should avoid foods high in saturated fat (fatty meat, fried foods), sugar (sweets), and salt (pickles, fish sauce); Do not drink too much alcohol because it can cause high blood pressure and heart rhythm disturbances.

Cardiovascular patients need to avoid strong emotional states such as being too happy or too sad. Keep your mind relaxed and avoid anxiety and excessive stress because it can increase blood pressure or cause symptoms to recur.

Physical activity should be maintained with light exercise, walking, yoga; should not be overexerted (climbing mountains, lifting heavy objects).

With the current weather, Dr. Thu Hoai especially notes that heart patients should be aware of the weather, dress warmly when it's cold, and avoid sudden changes in temperature.

Avoid salty foods

Dr. Thu Hoai emphasized that heart patients need to remember to limit salt and avoid salty foods such as pickled vegetables, pickled onions, banh chung, and banh tet because they can cause water retention and increase the burden on the heart.

In addition, patients need to pay attention to the amount of water they drink, ensuring that the amount of water used is just enough, not too much can cause difficulty breathing and edema, but too little can cause kidney failure or low blood pressure. Monitor weight daily, if it increases > 2kg in 2-3 days, you need to notify your doctor.

For patients taking anticoagulants, foods rich in vitamin K (green vegetables, broccoli) should be limited because they can affect the effectiveness of anticoagulants.

Cardiovascular patients are often prescribed antiplatelet or anticoagulant medications, so the risk of bleeding is higher than normal, so activities with a risk of injury should be avoided because they can cause serious bleeding.

"Heart patients need to remember that if they have one of the following signs, they need to go to the hospital immediately: Severe chest pain, severe shortness of breath; Rapid heartbeat, irregular heartbeat, or feeling like fainting; Swollen legs, abnormally large abdomen; Blood pressure that is too high or too low; Symptoms that do not improve with medication," Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai, Director of the National Heart Institute, Bach Mai Hospital, noted.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/an-tet-benh-nhan-tim-mach-can-tranh-nhung-mon-gi-192250126174840295.htm