Coronary Artery Disease - Living With Heart Disease
A diagnosis of
coronary artery disease can be hard to accept and
understand. If you don't have symptoms, it may be especially hard to recognize
that heart disease is serious and can lead to other health problems.
It's important to talk with your doctor to learn about the disease and
what you can do to help manage it and keep it from getting worse.
- Quit smoking, and avoid secondhand smoke. Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do to reduce your
risk of future problems. When you quit, you quickly lower your risk of a heart attack.
- Exercise. Start an exercise program (if your doctor says it's safe). Try walking, swimming, biking, or jogging for at least 30 minutes on most, if not all, days of the week. Any activity you enjoy will work, as long as it gets your heart rate up.
- Heart Disease: Exercising for a Healthy Heart
- Eat a heart-healthy diet. This can help you keep your disease from getting
worse. A chart(What is a PDF document?) that compares heart-healthy diets can help you see what foods are suggested in each plan. Heart-healthy foods include fruits, vegetables, high-fiber foods, fish, and foods low in sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
- Heart-Healthy Eating
- Stay at a healthy weight. Being active and eating healthy foods can help you stay at a healthy weight or lose weight if you need to.
- Weight Management
Your doctor may suggest that you attend a cardiac rehabilitation (rehab) program. In cardiac rehab, you will get education and support that help you build new, healthy
habits, such as eating right and getting more exercise.
Medicines are an important part of your treatment.
- Take your medicines exactly as directed. Do not stop taking your medicine unless your doctor tells you to.
- Get a flu vaccine every year.
Get help for depression
Depression and heart disease are linked. People with heart disease are more likely to get depressed. And if a person has both depression and heart disease, he or she may not stay as healthy as possible. This can make depression and heart disease worse.
If you think you may have depression, talk to your doctor. Take this short quiz to check your symptoms:
Interactive Tool: Are You Depressed? For more information, see