Should people with heart failure avoid salt substitutes that contain potassium?
Yes, people with heart failure should avoid salt substitutes that contain potassium. The change in recommendations in standard drug treatments will result in triple therapy with ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker and MRA becoming more common, and the risks of hyperkalaemia are significant if people are advised to switch from salt to potassium-containing salt substitutes (particularly if their baseline levels of salt intake are high, leading to high level of substitute consumption). Therefore, a consensus recommendation was made that they should be avoided in the heart failure population, in the hope that this would facilitate communication between patients and professionals on this point.