Coping With Heart Disease

Over the past few decades, modern medicine has made major strides in treating all forms of heart disease, and people who have heart disease today are living much longer, much happier lives than similar people did in previous generations. But enjoying the very best outcomes if you have heart disease depends on more than just what your healthcare providers do for you.

To a very large extent, it depends on what you do for yourself. Because living well with heart disease takes some effort. 

If you have been told you have heart disease, there’s a lot you will need to think about, and a lot you will need to do. You will need to learn as much as you can about your heart disease and about the treatments your healthcare provider has prescribed. You will have to learn what symptoms to watch out for. And, you very likely will have to make some lifestyle changes that might be challenging.

It is the people who do all these things—who take personal control over their own wellbeing—who live the longest, healthiest lives with heart disease.

Know Your Heart Disease

“Heart disease” is a pretty nonspecific term. There are many different kinds of heart disease, and most types will show a tremendous amount of variability from person to person in symptoms, severity, treatment, and prognosis.

So one of the most important things you will need to do is learn as much as you can about your particular disease, about the nature of the problem you have, and about what you can do to slow or even stop its progression. The more knowledge you have, the more you will be able to partner with your healthcare provider in making the decisions about your care that are right for you.

The most common types of heart disease are:

• Coronary artery disease and heart attacks
• Heart failure
• Heart valve disease
• Cardiac arrhythmias

In addition to learning whatever you can about your disease, you should also learn all you can about any other medical conditions you may have, since these can have a big impact on your outcomes. There are many disorders that particularly impact heart disease, but the two most common are diabetes and hypertension. You should talk with your healthcare provider about this aspect of your medical care.

Heart Disease Healthcare Provider Discussion Guide

Get our printable guide for your next healthcare appointment to help you ask the right questions.

Download PDF

Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life.

Sign Up

You're in!

Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up.

There was an error. Please try again.

Learn About Symptoms

Symptoms that accompany heart disease are important for two reasons.

First, of course, symptoms by their very nature are unpleasant and disturbing, and a chief goal of treating any medical problem is to minimize or eliminate them.

But second, noticing symptoms can provide an important clue—to you and your healthcare provider—that your cardiac condition may be changing. They can alert both of you that perhaps something needs to be done to get things back on a stable path.

For this reason, it is important to know what symptoms you should be watching for with your heart disease and to report them to your healthcare provider if you experience any of them.

Different forms of heart disease can cause different kinds of symptoms. But the most common symptoms caused by heart disease include:

• Chest pain, tightness, pressure, or discomfort
• Dyspnea (shortness of breath)
• Fatigue or weakness
• Palpitations
• Lightheadedness
• Syncope
• Depression

All of these symptoms are potentially very important, and should never be ignored. If you experience any of them, you need to talk to your healthcare provider about it.

Adjust Your Lifestyle

Many aspects of our lifestyles affect our heart health. There may be some particular lifestyle measures you should take that will be especially important for the heart disease you have.

About Exercise

Cardiologists are learning more every day about the importance of exercise for people who have heart disease. For many people exercise may, in fact, be the best medicine.

Be sure to discuss exercise with your healthcare provider, to learn what forms might be the most advantageous for people with your kind of heart disease, and how to safely get started. For many people, beginning with a formal cardiac rehabilitation program is the best way to begin.

About Stress

It is now pretty clear that certain kinds of emotional stress are potentially damaging to the heart. But since stress is a normal part of life, advising people to avoid stress is almost never helpful. Instead, you should learn techniques for coping with the stress you cannot avoid.

Take Charge of Medications

Medications are involved in many of the remarkable heart disease treatment advances we have seen in recent decades. So, it is extraordinarily likely that your healthcare provider will have prescribed at least a few of these medicines for you. 

Especially when it comes to heart medicines, it is extremely important that you take them regularly and on time. There are many tips and techniques for taking medicine without missing doses or taking too much. You should find a system for doing so that works for you, and stick to it.

Personal Technology

Personal electronic technology being developed by several companies promises to be of help to many people with heart disease. A few of these technologies are already widely available and may be helpful to you. These include:

• Automated home blood pressure monitoring devices
• Wireless scales that can record and store your weight over time
• Activity monitors that encourage you to remain active, such as Fitbit or Apple Watch
• Heart rate monitors that can alert you if your heart rate exceeds some determined threshold, such as the Apple Watch

Support Groups

It should be clear that, sometimes, living well with heart disease can present a real challenge. To deal with this kind of challenge it can be very helpful to join groups of people who are going through the same thing, who are facing the same difficulties, and who have found different techniques to cope. 

You should check with your healthcare provider (or look on the website of a local hospital) about local support groups for people with heart disease, and consider joining one. The American Heart Association website can also help you find local support groups, as well as online groups you might find helpful.