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Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, but modern medicine offers a wide range of treatments to help people manage this condition. From drugs that control blood pressure and cholesterol to lifesaving surgeries like heart transplants, the options for treating heart disease are as diverse as the disease itself. Whether you’re dealing with congenital heart defects, valve issues, or coronary artery disease, personalized care can make all the difference.
This article will explore the various treatments available for different types of heart disease, including medications, surgical interventions, and lifestyle changes. We’ll break down how each option works, its benefits, and the potential risks.
Many classes of medication are used to manage heart disease. It’s common for people with heart disease to be prescribed drugs from multiple categories.
Commonly called water pills, diuretics are often prescribed to treat people with hypertension (high blood pressure) or heart failure (weak heart muscle). Diuretics reduce blood volume by ridding the body of sodium and water through urination, which helps manage fluid retention associated with heart failure. Common diuretics include:
Diuretics are usually safe, but they can cause dehydration if you lose too much water.
Anticoagulants — known as blood thinners — can help prevent dangerous clots from forming and causing stroke or myocardial infarction (heart attack). Drugs from several classes work in different ways as blood thinners. Aspirin, an over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) commonly sold under brand names such as Bayer, is technically an antiplatelet drug but is usually referred to as a blood thinner. Other blood thinners include:
Blood thinners can raise the risk of bruising and bleeding problems.
High levels of cholesterol in the blood contribute to atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries). Statins are believed to work by stopping the body from producing cholesterol and promoting the reabsorption of existing cholesterol. Statin medications include:
Muscle pain and weakness are common side effects of statins. Newer nonstatin drugs that work to lower cholesterol include inclisiran (Leqvio).
Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT) inhibitors are a class of medications that manage diabetes but also improve outcomes for people with heart disease. These drugs work by preventing the kidneys from reabsorbing glucose, allowing excess sugar to be removed through the urine. SGLT2 inhibitors such as dapagliflozin (Farxiga) and empagliflozin (Jardiance) may be particularly beneficial for people with heart disease and diabetes.
Beta-blockers treat hypertension by slowing the heart rate and relaxing blood vessels. Some beta-blockers include:
ACE inhibitors are believed to lower blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels. Examples of these drugs include:
A common side effect of ACE inhibitors is dry cough.
Calcium channel blockers help treat high blood pressure and chest pain by relaxing and widening the arteries, which lowers the force needed for the heart to pump blood. Some calcium channel blockers are:
The most common side effect of calcium channel blockers is swelling in the legs.
Digoxin (Digitek, Lanoxin) is a type of digitalis drug used to treat heart failure. It helps lower the heart rate in people with atrial fibrillation, a common type of arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) that often causes a rapid heart rate.
Nitroglycerin (Nitro-Dur, Nitrolingual Pumpspray, NitroMist, Nitrostat) is used to treat or prevent angina pectoris (chest pain) due to coronary artery disease. Nitroglycerin is a nitrate. Nitrates are believed to work by dilating arteries and veins.
Anti-arrhythmic agents are used to correct problems with heart rhythm (such as atrial fibrillation) by influencing the electrical system of the heart. Antiarrhythmic agents include amiodarone (Cordarone) and sotalol (Betapace).
Angiotensin 2 receptor blockers (ARBs) are used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. Examples of ARBs include losartan (Cozaar) and valsartan (Diovan). ARBs work by relaxing blood vessels, which helps to lower blood pressure. They act on similar pathways as ACE inhibitors, so these two types of medications are generally not used together.
Antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, vancomycin, and penicillin G are sometimes used to treat endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves caused by bacteria.
Anti-inflammatory medications, including ibuprofen and indomethacin, are used to manage pericarditis, which is inflammation of the pericardium (the tissue surrounding the heart). Corticosteroids, such as prednisone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone, are synthetic hormones that may also be used for pericarditis to reduce inflammation by suppressing immune system activity.
When medications and lifestyle changes aren’t enough, surgical procedures can offer better solutions for many heart conditions, including congenital and structural heart disease. How much heart disease treatments cost varies widely depending on the specific procedure, but the benefits often extend and improve quality of life.
Surgeries are performed to correct defects, repair damage, and regulate or replace parts of the heart that have become dysfunctional. The type of surgery used depends on the type of heart disease and your age and overall health.
Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG, pronounced “cabbage”), often used in treating coronary artery disease, involves bypassing blocked arteries to restore blood flow to the heart. During the procedure, your surgeon will take healthy blood vessels from other parts of your body, usually the leg or chest, to reroute blood around blockages. While effective, CABG can be expensive, and recovery typically involves a hospital stay and rehabilitation. Minimally invasive techniques are now available to reduce risks.
Angioplasty is a less invasive alternative to CABG. During this procedure, a small balloon is used to open narrowed arteries, and a stent is often inserted to help keep the artery open. Stents are small wire mesh or fabric tubes that hold the artery in place. Permanent stents remain in the artery to support healthy blood flow over time.
This option is commonly used in structural heart disease treatment and comes with fewer risks than full surgery. Although it doesn’t cure the underlying disease, angioplasty is a cost-effective option for milder cases of heart disease.
Pacemakers help regulate irregular heart rhythms, whereas implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) prevent sudden cardiac arrest in people with life-threatening arrhythmias. These small devices are implanted under your skin and deliver electrical signals to keep your heart beating normally. Both treatments offer long-term management of arrhythmias, but ICDs are generally more expensive.
The heart has four valves — mitral, tricuspid, aortic, and pulmonary. Each valve opens to let blood flow into the next heart chamber and then closes to prevent blood from flowing backward.
For severe heart valve disease, surgery may be needed to repair or replace a damaged valve. Aortic and mitral valve surgeries are the most common, with replacement options including mechanical or biological valves. Newer, minimally invasive transcatheter procedures now offer heart valve disease treatment options for those who may not be able to undergo traditional surgery. The cost of valve treatments can vary based on the type of procedure and valve chosen.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive procedure for treating certain heart valve conditions, such as aortic valve stenosis, in which the aortic valve narrows and restricts blood flow. Unlike open-heart surgery, TAVR is performed through cardiac catheterization. In this procedure, a catheter (thin tube) is threaded through a blood vessel, typically in the leg, to deliver and implant a new valve within the narrowed aortic valve.
Ablation is a nonsurgical procedure used to treat arrhythmias by targeting the heart tissue that causes abnormal electrical signals. During the procedure, small sections of this tissue are destroyed or scarred to help restore a normal heart rhythm. This approach, often called catheter ablation, can use different techniques, such as radiofrequency ablation or cryoablation.
For people with severe heart failure, a ventricular assist device (VAD) helps the heart pump blood more effectively. It can be used temporarily while awaiting a heart transplant or as a long-term solution. VADs are part of advanced heart failure treatment, and their cost depends on whether they’re used short term or long term.
For people with end-stage heart failure, a heart transplant may be the only option. This complex procedure involves finding a suitable donor and taking lifelong immunosuppressant medications to prevent rejection. The donor heart must come from a recently deceased organ donor on life support and must be a close genetic match to reduce the risk of rejection. Donor hearts also need to be a similar size to the recipient’s and within a reasonable distance for transportation.
In addition to having severe heart failure, transplant candidates must meet extensive eligibility criteria. Despite the challenges, a heart transplant offers the best chance of survival for those with advanced heart disease. With careful management of rejection, heart transplant recipients can live longer than 10 years.
For people dealing with congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, or other structural heart conditions, these surgeries, along with less invasive interventions, are key treatment options. Always consult your cardiologist (heart specialist) or other health care provider to explore costs and the best approach to your heart disease treatment plan.
Making changes to your lifestyle can be hard, but the effort pays off. Stopping smoking, improving your diet, and increasing your activity level can help you feel better and lower your risk of worsening heart disease and developing serious complications.
If you smoke, try to quit. Smoking raises your blood pressure, damages red blood cells and blood vessels, increasing the likelihood of blood clots, which can cause strokes and heart attacks. Smoking actively works against any heart disease treatments, making it more likely that heart disease will progress and get worse. Even secondhand cigarette smoke has been shown to raise the risk of heart disease.
For people with heart disease, nutrition is one of the most important ways to help manage cholesterol and blood pressure and reduce the risk of serious long-term complications. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy sources of proteins, especially plant-based options like nuts and legumes, as well as fish and other seafood. Limiting processed foods, added sugars, and alcohol is also an important part of a heart-healthy diet.
In addition to strengthening the heart and other muscles, exercise can help manage cholesterol and blood pressure, promote a healthy weight, improve your mood, and prevent serious complications, such as diabetes and osteoporosis. Any amount of exercise is better than no exercise at all.
Regular exercise doesn’t have to mean joining a gym or playing sports. Almost any physical activity that gets you up and moving can offer significant benefits for heart health. Simple changes, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away, and taking walks during work breaks, can add up to make a difference.
So, can heart disease be cured? Scientists are still working on a cure, but the good news is that, with the latest treatment and lifestyle modifications, you can live a long life with heart disease. If you’re wondering how you can help someone who has heart disease, encourage them to talk with their doctor about the new treatment options.
On MyHeartDiseaseTeam, the social network for people with heart disease and their loved ones, more than 62,000 members come together to ask questions, give advice, and share their stories with others who understand life with heart disease.
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Vedran Radonić, M.D., Ph.D.
completed medical school and his Ph.D. at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Learn more about him here.
Kelly Crumrin
is a senior editor at MyHealthTeam and leads the creation of content that educates and empowers people with chronic illnesses.
Learn more about her here.
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