While there is no cure for cardiomyopathy, multiple treatment options are available. Treatment goals include:
- Slowing the progress of the disease
- Controlling symptoms
- Managing the underlying causes of the disease
- Reducing the risk of complications, including sudden cardiac arrest
Lifestyle changes are often recommended to help patients manage symptoms, reduce complications and improve heart health. Talk with your provider about how these heart-healthy changes can help.
- Eat a healthy diet. Enjoy plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, nuts, beans, fish and whole grains. Limit sodium, added sugars and unhealthy fats.
- If you smoke, quit. Smoking can increase your risk for heart attack and stroke. Avoid vaping and secondhand smoke as well.
- Keep updated on vaccines. Ask your provider about flu, COVID-19 and other vaccines that can help you avoid illness.
- Limit alcohol. Men should have no more than two drinks per day, and women should aim for no more than one drink each day.
- Manage other health problems. Take medicine for high blood pressure and diabetes and follow your provider’s guidance.
- Sleep well every night. Aim for seven to nine hours of good sleep per night.
- Stay physically active. Try to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week. Talk to your provider about what exercises are good for you. Be sure to watch for signs that your heart is working too hard. If you become short of breath or dizzy while exercising, stop and rest.
- Watch your weight. Take steps to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors: ACE inhibitors help lower blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart damage. They can be taken indefinitely to treat existing problems and can also be used to prevent cardiac problems from developing.
- Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs): ARBs help lower blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart damage. They can be taken indefinitely to treat existing problems and can also be used to prevent cardiac problems from developing.
- Antibiotics: When bacterial infection affects the heart, antibiotics help kill bacteria and create an environment in which it is difficult for bacteria to live. Antibiotics are typically prescribed in acute situations and will be taken for a limited amount of time.
- Beta blockers: These medicines are used to block the effects of adrenaline on the heart by slowing the heart rate and lessening the force of heart contractions. Beta blockers are used to treat many cardiovascular conditions, and they can be taken long-term. In adults ages 65 and older, they’re often prescribed indefinitely.
- Calcium channel blockers: These medicines block calcium channels to the heart cells, which slows the heart rate to help manage arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat. Calcium channel blockers can be taken indefinitely.
- Nitrates: These medicines are prescribed to help your heart get more oxygen-rich blood to reduce or stop chest pain. Nitrates are taken as needed when you experience chest pain or tightness. You can also take them proactively before participating in an activity that may cause chest pain.
- Diuretics: These medicines, which can be used alone or with other medicines, help treat high blood pressure or fluid buildup in the tissues. Diuretics force the kidneys to produce excess urine. When you urinate, this removes extra salt and fluid. Diuretics are safe for long-term use.
- Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors: These medicines help manage heart failure by lowering blood pressure and body weight and improving blood sugar levels. SGLT-2 inhibitors can help prevent heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes. They are safe to be taken long-term.
- Implanted devices: Devices such as pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization therapy devices, left ventricular assist devices and implantable cardioverter defibrillators may be implanted to help the heart function better.
- Alcohol septal ablation: During this nonsurgical procedure, ethanol is injected into the small artery that supplies blood to the part of the heart muscle thickened by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This causes the cells to die and the tissue to shrink.
- Septal myectomy: During this open-heart surgery used to treat obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a surgeon removes a portion of the thickened septum (wall) that’s bulging into the left ventricle. This improves blood flow.
- Heart transplant: This procedure is a treatment of last resort for those who have end-stage heart failure caused by cardiomyopathy.
