If you have heart failure, there’s good news and bad news on how much it would help you to cut back on salt. New research finds that while it doesn’t prevent death or hospitalization among patients, it does appear to improve their quality of life. Patients with heart failure have been told for years to reduce the salt in their diet as a way to help prolong life, but among more than 800 patients from six countries, reducing salt intake didn’t prevent deaths, visits to the emergency room or hospitalizations, the researchers found. Still, “we do think that there is a small amount to be gained by reducing the amount of sodium in the diet,” said researcher Dr. Justin Ezekowitz, a professor in the division of cardiology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. The patients in the study were already eating a lot less salt than most Americans consume, although they …