Treatment

Lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet and exercising, are the first treatment for atherosclerosis — and may be all that you need to treat your atherosclerosis. But sometimes, medication or surgical procedures may be needed.

Medications

Many different drugs are available to slow — or even reverse — the effects of atherosclerosis. Here are some medications used to treat atherosclerosis:

• Statins and other cholesterol medications. Aggressively lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the bad cholesterol — can slow, stop or even reverse the buildup of fatty deposits in your arteries.

  Statins are commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol, improve artery health and prevent atherosclerosis. There are many other types of cholesterol-lowering medications. Another common type is a cholesterol absorption inhibitor called ezetimibe (Zetia). You may need more than one type of cholesterol medication.

• Blood thinners. Your doctor may prescribe blood-thinning medications, such as aspirin, to reduce your risk that platelets will clump in narrowed arteries, form a blood clot and cause further blockage.
• Blood pressure medications. Drugs to lower blood pressure don't help reverse atherosclerosis but instead prevent or treat complications related to the disease. For example, certain blood pressure medications can help reduce your risk of a heart attack.
• Other medications. Your doctor may prescribe other medications to control health conditions that raise your risk of atherosclerosis, such as diabetes. And, specific medications to treat symptoms of atherosclerosis, such as leg pain during exercise, may be prescribed.

Surgery or other procedures

Sometimes more aggressive treatment is needed to treat atherosclerosis. If you have severe symptoms or a blockage, your doctor may recommend one of the following surgical procedures:

• Angioplasty and stent placement. This procedure — also called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) — helps open a clogged or blocked artery. Your doctor inserts a catheter into the diseased artery. A second catheter with a deflated balloon on its tip is passed through the first catheter to the blockage. Your doctor inflates the balloon, widening the artery. A mesh tube (stent) is usually left in the artery to help it open.
• Endarterectomy. Sometimes, plaque buildup must be surgically removed from the walls of a narrowed artery. When the procedure is done on arteries in the neck (the carotid arteries), it's called a carotid endarterectomy.
• Fibrinolytic therapy. If you have an artery that's blocked by a blood clot, your doctor may use a clot-dissolving drug to break it apart.
• Coronary artery bypass surgery. During this type of open-heart surgery, your doctor takes a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body to create a bypass around the blocked artery, redirecting blood flow. Sometimes the bypass is a graft made of synthetic material.