Treatments for Angina

Lifestyle changes and medicine are the most common ways to control stable angina. Although angina may be brought on by exercise, this does not mean that you should stop exercising. In fact, you should keep doing an exercise program that has been approved by your health care provider.

Risk factors for coronary artery disease should be controlled, including high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, high blood cholesterol, and excess weight. By eating healthfully, not smoking, limiting how much alcohol you drink, and avoiding stress, you may live more comfortably and with fewer angina attacks. You may need medicine to help lower your blood pressure or your cholesterol.

Drugs are often used to control angina. The most commonly used drug for angina is nitroglycerin, which relieves pain by relaxing blood vessels. This allows more blood to flow to the heart muscle and also decreases the workload of the heart. Nitroglycerin is taken when discomfort occurs or is expected. Your health care provider may prescribe other drugs to be taken every day to help reduce the heart's workload. Two types of drugs often used are called beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers.

Talk to your health care provider about changes you can make to improve your heart health and your angina. You may benefit from:

• weight loss

• increasing your physical activity

• eating healthy foods and not overeating

• controlling stress in your life

• quitting smoking

• drinking less alcohol.

If lifestyle changes and drugs fail to ease angina, or if your risk of heart attack is high, you may need additional tests and treatment. One common test is cardiac catheterization. This test involves inserting a catheter (a thin tube) into a forearm or groin artery and threading the catheter into the heart. A dye can be injected and tracked by computerized x-ray (coronary angiography or arteriography) to show where the arteries are blocked. Balloon angioplasty may be used to open up narrowed arteries. This procedure uses a tiny balloon that is inflated briefly inside the artery. Sometimes a stent (a tiny metal mesh tube) is put in to help keep the artery open.