Treatment for coronary artery disease focuses on taking steps to manage symptoms and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. For example:

• If your doctor agrees, take a low-dose aspirin each day to reduce your risk of heart attack.
• If you can't control your high blood pressure and high cholesterol with healthier habits, you may need to take medicines. They can help you manage these health problems and lower your risk.
• Your doctor may also suggest medicines if you often have chest pain that makes it hard to do everyday activities.
• If medicines don't help your chest pain, your doctor may suggest procedures to improve blood flow to the heart. Angioplasty with or without stent placement is one way to open clogged coronary arteries. Or sometimes coronary artery bypass graft surgery may be needed.
• No matter what kind of treatment you get, healthy habits such as quitting smoking, eating a heart-healthy diet, and getting regular exercise are important. You can start today:

  Interactive Tool: Are You Ready to Quit Smoking?

  Heart disease: Eating a heart-healthy diet

  Heart disease: Exercising for a healthy heart

What to Think About

Keep these questions in mind as you think about your treatment options:

• Will this treatment improve my symptoms?
• Will this treatment help prevent future heart problems?
• Am I likely to live longer with this treatment?
• What are the risks of this treatment?

Some things that can affect your choice of treatment include the severity of your chest pain, your test results, and your feelings about treatment.

Initial treatment

Lifestyle changes are the first step for anyone with coronary artery disease. But sometimes lifestyle changes are not enough. You may also need medicines.

Lifestyle changes

When you're first diagnosed with heart disease, your doctor will strongly advise you to make lifestyle changes. These include quitting smoking, eating a heart-healthy diet, and getting regular exercise. These healthy habits can slow or even stop the disease and improve the quality and length of your life.

Quit smoking. It's the best thing you can do to reduce your risk of future problems. And avoid secondhand smoke. People with heart disease who keep smoking have a 43% greater chance of dying from a heart attack than those who quit.⁸

Your doctor may prescribe medicine and counseling to help you quit. Nicotine replacement therapy, the medicines bupropion (Zyban or Wellbutrin) and varenicline (Chantix), and counseling can help you quit for good.⁹ For more information, see the topic Quitting Tobacco Use.

Eat a heart-healthy diet. This can help you keep your disease from getting worse. It means:

• Eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other high-fiber foods.
• Choose foods that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
• Limit salt.
• Stay at a healthy weight by balancing the calories you eat with how much physical activity you get.
• Eat more foods that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish.