Patient's Guide to Heart Transplant Surgery

Diet and Immunosuppressive Medications

Diet is a very important part of your life after transplantation. The drugs used to prevent rejection have several side effects that make good diet control necessary.

The immunosuppressive drugs:

• Cause the body to hold salt and water.
• Cause the body to lose potassium.
• May increase hunger and cause weight gain due to overeating.
• May increase the amount of sugar, cholesterol, and fats in the blood.
• May speed up the thickening and narrowing process of the blood vessels of the heart.

Diet is important even if you did not have weight problems or thickening of the blood vessels of your heart before the transplant surgery.

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