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Heart valve disease occurs if one or more of your heart valves don't work well. The heart has four valves—the tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral, and aortic valves—that make sure blood flows in the right direction through your heart’s four chambers and to the rest of your body.

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.

Atherosclerosis is a disease in which plaque builds up inside your arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart and other parts of your body.

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.

Congenital heart defects happen because the heart does not develop normally while the baby is growing in the womb. Doctors often do not know why congenital heart defects occur. Researchers do know that genetics can sometimes play a role.

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.

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.

Your doctor will diagnose peripheral artery disease based on your medical and family histories, a physical exam, and results from one or more tests: ankle-brachial index, Doppler ultrasound, treadmill test, magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA), arteriogram, and blood tests.

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.