Tips for Living with Heart Disease

At The Cardiac & Vascular Interventional Group, we offer patient-centered heart disease treatment. For those with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), it’s important to make the necessary lifestyle changes to have a better quality of life. CAD is the most common type of heart disease in the nation, and it is caused by excessive plaque buildup in the arteries that causes them to narrow over time (atherosclerosis). These arteries are supposed to carry oxygenated blood back to the heart muscle, but when they are damaged, the body responds by thinning the artery walls' lining. Gradually, CAD can cause heart failure if the heart is too weak or damaged to perform its essential functions.

You have a say in the progression of your disease, though. By doing things like quitting smoking, eating healthier, getting enough exercise, losing weight, and managing your stress level, you can achieve it. Your cardiologist can also help prescribe and manage CAD medicines to lower your cholesterol, thin your blood, control any chest pains, and lower hypertension. More aggressive CAD therapies may be necessary, including options like blood flow restoration through angioplasty or stent placement, or CAD bypass surgery.

Sadly, many can have CAD without any symptoms until the disease has progressed beyond the point of helping. That means they could have a heart attack before ever knowing they had CAD, even if they have no symptoms of chest pain, weakness, vomiting, dizziness, shock-like sensations in the arm, and difficulty breathing. Your cardiologist can help by testing you if you have specific risk factors for CAD, such as high body mass index (BMI), a sedentary lifestyle, high-stress levels, and if you smoke. There are ways you can correct the course in the early stages of heart disease so you can live a better quality of life and live longer than you would have otherwise.

Want more tips about how to live with heart disease? Contact us. You can reach us at (469) 437-3560 to arrange a consultation with one of our skilled, compassionate cardiologists in Dallas.