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The first step toward heart health is understanding your risk of heart disease. Your risk depends on many factors, some of which are changeable and others that are not. Risk factors are conditions or habits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. These risk factors may be different for each person.

The body’s muscles and nervous system help control your breathing. The lungs are like sponges; they cannot move on their own. Muscles in your chest and abdomen contract, or tighten, to create space in your lungs for air to flow in. The muscles then relax, causing the space in the chest to get smaller and squeeze the air back out. Your breathing usually does not require any thought, because it is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, also called the involuntary nervous system.

Dos de los principales factores de riesgo de enfermedad cardíaca son la presión arterial alta y el colesterol alto en sangre. Si cualquiera de estos números es alto, trabaje con su médico para que alcance un rango saludable.

Treatments for peripheral artery disease include lifestyle changes, anti-clotting medicines, statins to control cholesterol, and medicines to treat high blood pressure. When peripheral artery disease is advanced or does not respond to lifestyle changes and medicines, your doctor may recommend surgery or procedures such as bypass grafting, angioplasty and stent placement, and atherectomy.

At first, COPD may cause no symptoms or only mild symptoms. As the disease worsens, common signs and symptoms include an ongoing cough (with or without mucus), shortness of breath, wheezing or whistling when breathing, and chest tightness.

Your doctor will diagnose heart inflammation based on your medical history, a physical exam, and various tests and procedures, such as echocardiography.

An aortic aneurysm may not cause any signs or symptoms until the aneurysm ruptures or dissects. The types of symptoms that occur before a rupture will depend on the location of the aneurysm and whether it has become large enough to affect other parts of your body. An aneurysm that ruptures or dissects is life-threatening.

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.

Treatments for carotid artery disease may include heart-healthy lifestyle changes, medicines, and medical procedures such as carotid endarterectomy and carotid artery angioplasty and stenting.

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.