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After a heart attack, you'll need treatment for coronary heart disease to help prevent another heart attack. Your doctor may recommend lifestyle changes, medicines, and a cardiac rehabilitation program.

Certain risk factors make it more likely that you'll develop coronary heart disease and have a heart attack. Risk factors you can control include smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, overweight and obesity, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and high blood sugar due to insulin resistance or diabetes. Risk factors you can’t control include age, family history of early heart disease, and preeclampsia.

Taking action to control your risk factors—through heart-healthy eating, maintaining a healthy weight, physical activity, and quitting smoking—can help prevent or delay carotid artery disease and stroke.

A heart attack happens if the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a section of heart muscle suddenly becomes blocked and the heart can't get oxygen. Most heart attacks occur as a result of coronary heart disease. A less common cause is a severe spasm of the coronary artery.

Carotid artery disease seems to start when damage occurs to the inner layers of the carotid arteries. The buildup of plaque or blood clots can severely narrow or block the carotid arteries, which limits the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your brain.

Some people who have cardiomyopathy never have signs or symptoms or only have signs and symptoms in later stages of the disease. As cardiomyopathy worsens and the heart weakens, signs and symptoms of heart failure—trouble breathing, fatigue, and swelling—usually occur.

Quitting smoking and avoiding secondhand smoke benefits your heart and blood vessels. Studies show that quitting smoking lowers the risk for atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and complications such as heart attack or death.

Age, race, gender, certain medical conditions—high blood pressure, diabetes, brain aneurysms, and heart diseases—smoking, and family history can raise your risk for a stroke.

The chemicals in tobacco smoke, including secondhand smoke and smoke from pipes or cigars, can cause changes in the body. Body changes can include inflammation, damage to blood vessel walls, changes to heart rhythm, an increase in blood pressure, changes in cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and thickened blood. Smoking can increase your risk for heart disease and peripheral artery disease.

Sudden cardiac arrest is an emergency. A person having sudden cardiac arrest needs to be treated with a defibrillator to send an electric shock to the heart right away to restore normal heart rhythm. Use of automated external defibrillators and CPR can be performed by bystanders. If you survive sudden cardiac arrest, you’ll likely be admitted to the hospital for ongoing care and treatment.