Heart disease is a category, and you may not know you have it

Heart disease is a general term covering many different heart problems,
and a type of cardiovascular disease — heart and blood vessel disease. It
is the leading cause of death in the United States, and many types can be
prevented and managed.

The types

Some you are born with — congenital heart disease. Others develop during
life.

Coronary artery disease is the most common. A sticky substance called
plaque builds up slowly in the arteries supplying the heart muscle with blood,
narrowing or blocking that flow, and leading to:

Other heart diseases affect the heart valves or the **heart muscle
itself** (cardiomyopathy).

Causes depend on the type: lifestyle, genetics, infections, medicines, and
other diseases.

The symptom problem

**Your symptoms depend on which type you have, and you may have none at
first.** In some cases **you do not know you have heart disease until a
complication such as a heart attack.**

That is why the risk factors below do more work here than symptoms do — with
this family of conditions, waiting to feel something is not a strategy.

Risk, changeable and not

Not changeable:

• Age — risk rises as you get older
• Sex — some factors affect risk differently in women than in men
• Family history and genetics — early heart disease in the family raises
  risk, and some genes are linked to particular heart diseases
• Race and ethnicity — heart disease is the leading cause of death in most
  racial and ethnic groups in the US; **Black, White and American
  Indian/Alaska Native** people carry higher risks

Changeable — lifestyle habits:

• A diet high in saturated fats, refined carbohydrates and salt
• Too little physical activity
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Smoking, and exposure to secondhand smoke
• Too much stress

Other medical conditions also raise risk, including **autoimmune and
inflammatory diseases, chronic kidney disease and metabolic syndrome**.

Diagnosis and treatment

A provider will ask about your medical history and symptoms, your **family
health history**, do a physical exam, and likely run heart tests and blood
tests. You may be referred to a cardiologist.

Treatment depends on the type, how serious the symptoms are, and what else is
going on: **heart-healthy lifestyle changes, medicines, procedures or
surgeries, and cardiac rehabilitation**.

Prevention is the same lifestyle changes, plus managing the other medical
conditions you have.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, via MedlinePlus.