The Healthy Heart Preventing Detecting And Treating Coronary Artery Disease: Heart Disease

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

The Healthy Heart: Preventing, detecting, and treating coronary artery disease

You often hear only bad news about heart disease. After all, it is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing one in five people. But here is the good news: Prevention efforts and treatment advances have made a difference. Between 1950 and 1999, the death rate from heart disease fell by almost 60% and is still falling.

If you follow the news about heart disease closely, however, it's easy to be overwhelmed or confused about what puts you at risk and how you can protect yourself. Sometimes it seems as if every year scientists either identify a new risk factor for heart disease or revise the advice about an established one. To some degree, this reflects the way that science progresses and the extraordinary effort under way to understand what causes heart disease. But where does this leave you as you try to figure out how to avoid heart disease?

First, focus your energy. It is becoming clear that 80%–90% of the people who develop coronary artery disease have at least one major controllable risk factor. Most of these risk factors can be eliminated or at least managed if you take steps to protect yourself (see "Recognizing and reducing risk factors," below).

Second, learn all you can about improvements in diagnosis and treatment so that you are aware of your options and can talk with your doctor about them. One of the most exciting advances in cardiology is the development of improved technology that enables doctors to take better pictures of the heart and arteries. The hope is that these techniques and others still in development will provide a noninvasive way to diagnose heart disease, thus sparing people the risks involved in angiography and other procedures.

And it's not just diagnosis that is changing. Advances in management and a better understanding of how to fine-tune treatment for each individual have also helped to save lives.

Information and choices abound. As you consider your options, remember that with heart disease, as in most areas of medicine, one size does not fit all. Work with your doctor to determine how best to protect yourself. This report should help you to develop a personalized strategy for your own heart health.

Last updated:	May 03, 2007