Quick answer: heart disease is an umbrella term for conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels — coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, heart failure, valve disease, congenital defects and more. It remains the leading cause of death worldwide, but most of the risk sits in factors you can change: smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, activity level and diet. This guide covers the main types, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, plus links to every condition-specific article on this site.
Warning Signs: Call Emergency Services
Before anything else, the part that matters most if you or someone near you is having symptoms right now.
- Chest pain, pressure, tightness or heaviness lasting more than a few minutes, or going away and coming back
- Discomfort spreading to one or both arms, the jaw, neck, back or stomach
- Shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort
- Cold sweat, nausea, vomiting or light-headedness
- Sudden unexplained exhaustion, particularly in women
- Fainting, or a racing or irregular heartbeat with light-headedness
Call an ambulance rather than driving. Crews can begin treatment on the way and can defibrillate if the heart stops. Many heart attacks are not dramatic — no clutching the chest, no collapse — and can feel like indigestion or simply feeling profoundly unwell, particularly in women, people over 75 and people with diabetes. If something feels wrong and unfamiliar, treat it as cardiac until a professional says otherwise.
What Is Heart Disease?
Heart-related diseases, or cardiovascular diseases, describe a range of conditions affecting the normal functioning of the heart and blood vessels. The main categories are:
- Coronary and blood vessel disease — atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty plaque that narrows arteries and can cause angina or a heart attack
- Heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) — the heart beating too fast, too slow or irregularly
- Congenital heart defects — structural problems present from birth
- Heart failure and cardiomyopathy — the heart muscle weakening or thickening and pumping less effectively
- Valve disease — heart valves that don’t open or close properly
- Heart infections — inflammation or infection of the heart tissue or lining
Risk Factors
| Modifiable | Not modifiable |
|---|---|
| Smoking, including vaping and secondhand smoke | Age |
| High blood pressure | Sex |
| High LDL cholesterol | Family history of premature heart disease |
| Diabetes and prediabetes | Ethnicity, which affects baseline risk in some groups |
| Physical inactivity | Inherited conditions |
| Excess weight, particularly around the abdomen | |
| Poor diet, high in saturated fat, salt and refined carbohydrate | |
| Excess alcohol | |
| Chronic stress and poor sleep, including untreated sleep apnoea |
The encouraging part: the great majority of the risk sits in the modifiable column. Untreated celiac disease has also been associated with a modestly increased cardiovascular risk in some studies, which is one reason unexplained digestive symptoms alongside heart risk factors are worth mentioning to a doctor.
Symptoms by Type
Coronary artery disease
- Chest pain, tightness, pressure or discomfort (angina)
- Shortness of breath
- Pain, numbness, weakness or coldness in the legs or arms, from narrowed blood vessels
- Pain in the neck, jaw, throat, upper abdomen or back
Arrhythmias
- Fluttering in the chest
- Racing heartbeat (tachycardia) or an unusually slow one (bradycardia)
- Chest pain or discomfort
Cardiomyopathy and heart failure
Early stages often have no symptoms. As the condition worsens:
- Breathlessness with exertion or at rest
- Swelling of the legs, ankles and feet
- Fatigue
- Irregular heartbeats, felt as pounding or fluttering
- Dizziness, light-headedness and fainting
Heart infections
- Fever
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness or fatigue
- Swelling in the legs or abdomen
How Heart Disease Is Diagnosed
- Electrocardiogram (ECG) — detects irregularities in heart rhythm and structure
- Holter monitoring — a portable ECG worn over a day or more to catch rhythm irregularities a single ECG might miss
- Echocardiogram — a chest ultrasound showing the heart’s structure and function directly
- Stress test — raises the heart rate with exercise or medication while monitoring how the heart responds
Treatment
Treatment depends entirely on which condition is present, and typically follows this order:
Lifestyle changes
A heart-healthy diet, at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, quitting smoking, and limiting alcohol. These are the foundation for every type of heart disease, not just prevention.
Medications
If lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough, medication may be prescribed to lower blood pressure or cholesterol, correct heart rhythm, or thin the blood — the specific choice depends on the diagnosis.
Procedures and surgery
- Catheter procedures to insert stents or balloons and open blocked vessels
- Bypass surgery to re-route blood flow around a blockage
- Pacemakers to regulate an abnormal heartbeat
- Valve repair or replacement
- Heart transplant, in severe cases
Heart-Healthy Foods
Diet influences blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol and inflammation — all risk factors for heart disease. Foods with the strongest support:
- Leafy green vegetables (spinach, kale, collard greens) — rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants associated with lower blood pressure
- Berries — high in anthocyanins, which protect against the oxidative stress and inflammation linked to heart disease
- Avocados — a source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, linked to lower cholesterol
- Fatty fish — high in omega-3 fatty acids, linked to lower blood pressure, triglycerides and cholesterol
- Walnuts — fiber, magnesium, copper and manganese, associated with lower cholesterol and blood pressure
- Dark chocolate — flavonoid antioxidants, associated with less calcified coronary plaque in some studies
- Olive oil — the Mediterranean diet’s staple fat, linked to lower blood pressure and heart disease risk
Prevention
- Don’t smoke, and avoid secondhand smoke. Quitting is the single largest and fastest risk reduction available to most people.
- Stay active. Any activity is better than none; at least 30 minutes most days is the general target.
- Aim for a healthy weight. Losing 5 to 10% of body weight, for people who are overweight, has been associated with meaningful improvement in blood pressure and blood sugar.
- Eat a heart-healthy diet. More fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fat and lean protein; less processed food, salt, refined carbohydrate, red meat and sugary drinks.
- Limit alcohol if you drink at all.
- Know your numbers. Blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and blood glucose don’t produce symptoms until they’ve already caused damage — testing finds them before that happens.
- Get regular health screenings so risk factors are caught and managed early.
Related Reading on This Site
Condition-specific detail on every topic covered here:
- Ischemic heart disease — how narrowed coronary arteries affect the heart
- Stable ischemic heart disease — how serious it really is, and what the stent trials found
- Coronary heart disease: facts, myths and risk factors
- Hypertensive heart disease — diagnosis, ICD-10 codes and treatment
- Heart disease ICD-10 codes — how diagnosis coding works, and the family-history code
- How triglycerides are related to heart disease
- Which blood lipid is linked most directly to heart disease
- Adult congenital heart disease
- Acyanotic congenital heart disease
- Cyanotic congenital heart disease
- Structural heart disease
- Carcinoid heart disease — a rare cause of right-sided valve damage
- Heart disease, depression and anxiety
Frequently Asked Questions
An umbrella term for a range of conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels, including coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, congenital defects, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, valve disease and heart infections. It remains the leading cause of death worldwide, but most of the risk is modifiable through lifestyle.
Modifiable risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, diabetes, physical inactivity, excess weight, poor diet, excess alcohol and chronic stress or poor sleep. Non-modifiable factors include age, sex, family history and certain inherited conditions. The majority of population-level risk sits in the modifiable factors.
A large share of it can. Not smoking, staying active, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a heart-healthy diet, limiting alcohol and knowing your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose numbers address most of the modifiable risk. Even with a family history, these steps meaningfully lower risk rather than making the outcome inevitable.
Which tests are needed depends on the suspected condition. Common tests include an ECG to check heart rhythm and structure, an echocardiogram (chest ultrasound) to see the heart directly, Holter monitoring to catch irregularities over a longer period, and a stress test to see how the heart responds under exertion.
Call immediately for chest pain, pressure or tightness lasting more than a few minutes, discomfort spreading to the arm, jaw, neck, back or stomach, shortness of breath, cold sweat, nausea or light-headedness, or sudden unexplained exhaustion. Do not drive yourself, and do not wait to see if it passes — ambulance crews can begin treatment on the way.
Sources
- World Health Organization — Cardiovascular diseases fact sheet.
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute — Heart Disease.
- CDC — About Heart Disease.
- MedlinePlus — Heart Diseases.
Controlling and Preventing Heart Disease Risk Factors
Last updated: August 2026. Written by Maja Zayeri, who covers cardiovascular topics and is not a clinician. Reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team; not reviewed by a named clinician. This article is general information and is not medical advice or a diagnosis. If you have symptoms suggesting a heart attack, call emergency services immediately rather than reading further.
