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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffIn most cases you can't prevent your heart from enlarging. Let your doctor know if you have a family history of conditions that can cause an enlarged heart, such as cardiomyopathy. If cardiomyopathy or other heart conditions are diagnosed early, treatments may prevent the disease from worsening.
You can help reduce your chance of developing heart failure by avoiding some of the conditions that can contribute to a weak heart, including the abuse of alcohol or cocaine, or not getting enough vitamins and minerals. Controlling high blood pressure with diet, exercise, and possibly medications also prevents many people who have an enlarged heart from developing heart failure later in life. Controlling risk factors for coronary artery disease — tobacco use, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes — helps to reduce your risk of an enlarged heart and heart failure by reducing your risk of heart attack.
- Enlarged heart. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4517. Accessed Dec. 14, 2008.
- Samariel AM, et al. Molecular and cellular biology of the normal, hypertrophied, and failing heart. In: Fuster V, et al. Hurst's The Heart, 12th ed. New York, N.Y.: Mc-Graw Hill Professional; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3049170&searchStr=cardiomegaly. Accessed Dec. 17, 2008.
- Hill JA, et al. Cardiac plasticity. New England Journal of Medicine. 2008;358:1370.
- Cardiomyopathy. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/cm/cm_all.html. Accessed Jan. 28, 2009.
- Grogan M (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Feb. 17, 2009.
