Coronary Heart Disease

Alternate Names : Coronary Artery Disease, CHD, CAD

What can be done to prevent the disease?

Although family medical history or genetics can't be changed, a person can lower his or her risk for developing CHD. Here are some steps that a person can take to lower his or her coronary risk factors:

Before menopause, women have some protection against heart disease. Experts believe this is due in part to the fact that they have adequate levels of estrogen in their bodies. This hormone may have a protective effect. Estrogen tends to raise HDL cholesterol, known as the good cholesterol. It also lowers total cholesterol. There is no proof that estrogen replacement therapy has this same protective effect in a woman who has gone through menopause. Estrogen replacement therapy is a form of hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.

In fact, the latest recommendation from the American Heart Association, or AHA, does not advise starting HRT for the sole purpose of preventing heart disease. There is not enough data to support this. This same advisory issued by the AHA in 2001 recommends that women who already have heart disease should not be started on HRT. In fact, a recent study has even shown that if HRT is started after a woman has a heart attack, she may be at a higher risk for worsening of her angina, or having other serious cardiac complications.

What are the long-term effects of the disease?

CHD is a progressive disease that can lead to heart attack and sudden death.

What are the risks to others?

Coronary heart disease is not contagious. However, it does tend to run in families.