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Lifestyle changes—including quitting smoking, losing excess weight, avoiding the use of alcohol and illegal drugs, getting enough sleep, and reducing stress—and ongoing care can help you manage cardiomyopathy.

Certain diseases, conditions, or factors can raise your risk for cardiomyopathy. Major risk factors include a family history, preexisting disease or condition, diabetes, diseases that can damage the heart, long-term alcoholism, and long-term high blood pressure.

Living with peripheral artery disease and its symptoms requires ongoing health care and heart-healthy lifestyle changes. Talk to your doctor about taking part in a supervised exercise program, maintain routine foot care and inspection for sores, and take all medicines as prescribed.

Many people who have peripheral artery disease do not have any signs or symptoms. When people do have signs and symptoms of peripheral artery disease, they can include intermittent claudication, weak or absent pulses in the legs or feet, sore or wounds on the toes, feet, or legs that heal slowly, a pale or bluish color to the skin, a lower temperature in one leg compared to the other leg, poor nail growth, and erectile dysfunction.

Mitral valve prolapse is a condition in which the flaps of the mitral valve are floppy, or prolapsed, which can prevent the seal from forming, which results in a backflow of blood in the left atrium as blood is pumped through the heart.

People at greatest risk for metabolic syndrome have high abdominal obesity, an inactive lifestyle, and insulin resistance. Some racial and ethnic groups in the United States are at higher risk for metabolic syndrome than others.

Atherosclerosis is the main cause of PAD. Plaque buildup in the arteries is called atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a disease in which a waxy substance called plaque builds up on the inner lining of arteries. Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, fibrous tissue, and calcium. In PAD, plaque may reduce or fully block the flow of oxygen-rich blood through arteries to the body’s vital organs and the limbs.

Controlling certain risk factors by staying physically active, following a heart-healthy eating plan, quitting smoking, and losing weight if you’re overweight or obese can help prevent or delay peripheral artery disease and its complications. By following these recommendations, you can also prevent and control other conditions associated with peripheral artery disease, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and stroke.

The exact cause of mitral valve prolapse is not known; however, most people are born with the condition. Mitral valve prolapse tends to run in families and is more common in people who are born with connective tissue disorders, such as Marfan syndrome.

To prevent heart valve disease caused by rheumatic fever, see your doctor if you have signs of a strep infection. Heart-healthy eating, physical activity, other heart-healthy lifestyle changes, and medicines aimed at preventing a heart attack, high blood pressure, or heart failure also may help prevent heart valve disease.