Your doctor may recommend heart-healthy lifestyle changes if you have atherosclerosis. Heart-healthy lifestyle changes include heart-healthy eating, aiming for a healthy weight, managing stress, physical activity and quitting smoking.
Sometimes lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough to control your cholesterol levels. For example, you also may need statin medications to control or lower your cholesterol. By lowering your blood cholesterol level, you can decrease your chance of having a heart attack or stroke. Doctors usually prescribe statins for people who have: Coronary heart disease, peripheral artery disease, or had a prior stroke, Diabetes and
High LDL cholesterol levels.
If you have severe atherosclerosis, your doctor may recommend a medical procedure or surgery; Percutaneous coronary intervention or Coronary artery bypass grafting.