Quit Smoking

• Smoking can make a major contribution to coronary artery disease. Quitting is probably the biggest step you can take to prevent the condition. The carbon monoxide in cigarettes lowers the amount of oxygen in your blood. It also harms your blood vessels. Meanwhile, nicotine makes your heart work less efficiently because of the chemical's constrictive effect on the blood vessels.
  
  

Cholesterol

• High cholesterol and poor cardiovascular health go hand in hand. Starting at age 20, you should have a lipoprotein profile -- which measures total cholesterol, good cholesterol, bad cholesterol and triglycerides -- every five years, assuming you don't have other risk factors. Starting at age 45 for men and 50 for women, you'll need to be tested more often, with frequency to be determined by your doctor. For the average person, bad cholesterol should not exceed 160 milligrams/deciliter.
  
  

Blood Pressure

• To prevent coronary artery disease, it's important to keep blood pressure low. It should be measured every two years at minimum. A good level is 120 millimeters of mercury for systolic and 80 for diastolic.
  
  

Diabetes

• If you're diabetic, maintaining good control of blood sugar is crucial to avoiding coronary artery disease.
  
  

Other Lifestyle Changes

• Genetics play a large role in who gets coronary heart disease, overall health habits are important, too. Keeping at a healthy weight, avoiding or managing stress to the extent possible, eating plenty of lean, vitamin-rich foods (vegetables, fruits and whole grains) and getting lots of exercise -- a half-hour to an hour most days each week -- all set the stage for good heart health.
  
  If you develop coronary artery disease, a doctor can set you up with a treatment plan. Many of the steps, such as avoiding tobacco and getting lots of physical activity, will be the same as prevention. However, one or more of a wide array of medications may also be prescribed: beta blockers, cholesterol drugs, aspirin, nitroglycerin, calcium channel blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE, inhibitors. When more dramatic measures are needed, angioplasty procedures to open the arteries, or surgery to bypass them, are options.