The best way to prevent heart failure is to make changes in your lifestyle that lower your risk of developing heart disease. It is also important to control certain medical conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, to lower your chances of developing heart failure.

Heart disease caused by narrowing and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) in the blood vessels of the heart and by heart attack are leading causes of heart failure. To reduce your risk of atherosclerosis:

• Do not smoke. If you smoke, quit. Smoking greatly increases your risk for heart disease. Avoid secondhand smoke too.
• Lower your cholesterol. If you have high cholesterol, follow your doctor's advice for lowering it. Eating a low-cholesterol diet, exercising, and quitting smoking will help keep your cholesterol low.
• Control your blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, your risk of developing heart disease increases. Studies have shown that lowering blood pressure to normal levels in people who have high blood pressure could reduce the cases of heart failure by half.¹⁰ Exercising, limiting alcohol intake, and controlling stress will help keep your blood pressure in a healthy range.
• Get regular exercise. Exercise will help control your weight, blood pressure, and stress levels, all of which will help keep your heart healthy. Try to do activities that raise your heart rate. Exercise for at least 30 minutes on most, preferably all, days of the week.
• Control diabetes. Taking your medicines as directed and working with your doctor to manage your diet will help control diabetes.
• Limit alcohol intake. A recent study found that moderate alcohol consumption decreased the risk of heart failure in older people.¹¹ Moderate drinking means no more than 2 drinks a day for men and 1 drink a day for women. Heavy consumption of alcohol, however, can lead to heart failure.

Identifying people who are at high risk of developing heart failure before they show any signs of structural heart disease (stage A) is important so that they can be monitored, underlying conditions (such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol) can be controlled, and medicines such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors can be given if appropriate.²