Coronary Heart Disease: What Are Your Treatment And Care Options?

Modern medicine has come a long way, something that's also reflected in treatment options for coronary heart disease. While there is no cure for the disease, the right combination of lifestyle changes, drugs, and sometimes surgery can help manage and reduce symptoms, as well as halting the progression of the disease and improving heart function.

Lifestyle changes to maximize your heart health

Your lifestyle makes a huge difference when it comes to treatment for heart disease, and some things you should definitely take on board include:

• Exercise more. Exercise helps you get to or stay at a healthy weight, and it also helps control your blood sugar levels, cholesterol and blood pressure. You should aim to incorporate approximately 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity a week.
• Eat healthier. Try to include healthy fats and cholesterol into your diet and reduce your intake of bad cholesterol and trans fats. Cut down on alcohol, excess salt, and excess sugar where relevant. One example of a heart healthy diet, known as the Mediterranean diet, focuses on fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains.
• Quit smoking. Smoking being one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease, quitting is one of the best things you can do to control your disease. This is because nicotine, which is abundant in cigarettes, causes blood vessels to constrict and narrow — which makes your heart work harder. Quitting smoking is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of heart attack.
• Treat your depression. Depressed people are more likely to develop heart disease. If you find yourself feeling hopeless and uninterested in life all the time, see a doctor.
• Practice good hygiene and make sure you get vaccinated as infections also increase your risk of developing heart disease.
• Keep your blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol under control by reducing risk factors associated with these diseases such as obesity, high sugar intake, high salt intake and a sedentary lifestyle.

Medications to manage coronary heart disease

Several different medications can be used to treat coronary heart disease. These medicines either reduce blood pressure or widen your blood vessels. Often, the first medication that your doctor will prescribe will not be one that works for you, and you may need to try a few before you find the right one. Here are examples of medications that can be used to treat heart disease:

• Antiplatelet medications reduce the risk of a heart attack by stopping your blood from clotting.
• Statins work to lower cholesterol levels.
• Beta blockers are drugs that block the effect of certain hormones that help slow down your heart beat, improve your blood flow, and reduce your blood pressure.
• Nitrates help widen your blood vessels, which allows more blood to go through. Nitrates are used to help reduce your blood pressure and relieve heart pain.
• Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduce blood pressure by blocking the activity of angiotensin II, help stop your heart from working too hard, and increase blood flow.
• Angiotensin II receptor antagonists function similarly to ACE inhibitors as they help lower your blood pressure by blocking the activity of angiotensin II.
• Calcium channel blockers reduce your blood pressure by relaxing the walls of your blood vessels, causing them to become wider and improving blood flow.
• Diuretics increase the water and salt composition of your urine, leading to reduced water retention and decreased blood pressure.

Surgical procedures to manage coronary heart disease

Coronary angioplasty is either planned for people with stable angina or conducted in an emergency situation in patients with unstable angina or during a heart attack. People will generally undergo a coronary angiogram to make sure they are candidates for this treatment. During a coronary angioplasty, the surgeon puts a small balloon to push fatty tissue from a narrow artery outwards so that it is no longer blocking the artery. This allows the blood to flow through the vessel more easily. Then, a stent is placed in the artery to keep it open. Sometimes, these stents release drugs to continue to keep the artery widened.

A coronary artery bypass graft, more commonly known as bypass surgery, is an option for patients with severely narrowed or fully blocked arteries, which is determined using a coronary angiogram. Bypass surgery doesn't require the heart to be attached to a heart-lung machine, as it can keep pumping by itself. During bypass surgery, a blood vessel is placed in between the aorta (main artery leaving the heart) and a part of the artery that is narrow or blocked. This enables the blood to “bypass” the blocked region and still supply oxygen rich blood.

If the heart is very damaged and drugs are ineffective, the heart is no longer able to pump the blood that is needed for the body. In this case, a heart transplant is becomes the only possible solution. During a heart transplant, your heart is replaced with one from a donor.