Heart disease treatments vary. You may need lifestyle changes, medications, surgery or other medical procedures as part of your treatment.

Treatments for cardiovascular disease
The goal in treating diseases of your arteries (cardiovascular disease) is often to open narrowed arteries that cause your symptoms. Depending on how severe the blockages in your arteries are, treatment may include:

* Lifestyle changes. Whether your heart disease is mild or severe, it's likely your doctor will recommend lifestyle changes as part of your treatment. Lifestyle changes include eating a low-fat, low-sodium diet, getting at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week, quitting smoking and limiting how much alcohol you drink.

* Medications. If lifestyle changes alone aren't enough, your doctor may prescribe medications to control your heart disease. These could include medications to lower your blood pressure, such as diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or beta blockers; blood thinning medications, such as daily aspirin therapy; or cholesterol-lowering medications, such as statins or fibrates.
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Medical procedures or surgery. If medications aren't enough, it's possible your doctor will recommend specific procedures or surgery to clear the blockages in your heart. A common procedure is coronary angioplasty, which is performed by placing a catheter in an artery in your arm or groin and threading a small balloon to your blocked artery and inflating it to reopen the artery. A small metal coil called a stent is often placed in the artery during angioplasty. The stent helps keep the artery open.

Sometimes, a more invasive procedure, coronary artery bypass surgery, is necessary. In this procedure, the blocked portion of your artery is removed and a vein from another part of your body — usually your leg — replaces the diseased part of the artery.