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Prevention

By Mayo Clinic staff

Heart-Healthy Living

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The key to preventing heart failure is to reduce your risk factors. You can control or eliminate many of the risk factors for heart disease — high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, for example — by making lifestyle changes along with the help of any needed medications.

Lifestyle changes you can make to help prevent heart failure include:

  • Not smoking
  • Controlling certain conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes
  • Staying physically active
  • Eating healthy foods
  • Maintaining a healthy weight
  • Reducing and managing stress
References
  1. What is heart failure? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/hf/. Accessed Oct. 12, 2011.
  2. Lindenfield J, et al. 2010 HFSA Comprehensive practice guideline. Journal of Cardiac Failure. 2010;16:475.
  3. Jessup M, et al. 2009 Focused update: ACCF/AHA guidelines for the diagnosis and management of heart failure in adults. Circulation. 2009;119:1977.
  4. Weintraub NL, et al. Acute heart failure syndromes: Emergency department presentation, treatment and disposition: Current approaches and future aims. Circulation. 2010;122:1975.
  5. Riegel B, et al. State of the science: Promoting self-care in persons with heart failure: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2009;120:1141.
  6. Gottlieb DJ, et al. Prospective study of obstructive sleep apnea and incident coronary heart disease and heart failure: The Sleep Heart Health Study. Circulation. 2010;122:352.
  7. What is a ventricular assist device? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/vad/. Accessed Oct. 12, 2011.
  8. Schocken DD, et al. Prevention of heart failure: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2008;117:2544.
  9. Kapoor M, et al. Heart failure. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2012: 5 Books in 1. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2012. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?about=true&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05611-3..C2009-0-38601-8--TOP&isbn=978-0-323-05611-3&uniqId=285410529-35. Accessed Oct. 5, 2011.
  10. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-PolicyDocument.htm. Accessed Feb. 18, 2011.
DS00061 Dec. 23, 2011

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