What is stable angina?

Be aware of your symptoms

Tracking when and why your angina symptoms happen is one way to understand your angina better. It also helps you know what's normal for you.

If you know what's normal for you, it'll be easier to tell if you have a change in symptoms that means it's time to call for help.

Understanding your normal patterns may also help you make some changes that might prevent or reduce symptoms.

To track your symptoms, write down:

• The day and time of day you notice symptoms.
• What you were doing when you had them:
  • Exercising or doing a physical activity?
  • Eating a large meal?
  • Spending time outside in very cold weather?
  • Feeling a lot of stress?
  • Something else?
• How long the symptoms lasted.
• What you did to help your symptoms.

Work with your doctor

You and your doctor can use your symptoms tracking information to talk about whether you need any changes to your angina treatment. For example, you may decide to use medicine or to change your medicine. Or you may talk about other treatments you could try. Most people who have stable angina can control their symptoms by taking prescribed medicines, including nitroglycerin, when needed.

Balance activity and rest

Staying active and knowing when to rest during activity are also important.

Here are some tips that might help you manage your angina.

• Ease into your day.
• Warm up slowly before activity. Talk to your doctor about a level of activity that is safe for you.
• Give yourself time to rest and digest right after meals.
• Change the way you eat. Eat smaller meals more often during the day instead of two or three large meals.
• If an activity causes angina, stop and rest. Be active at a level that does not cause symptoms.

Stable angina means that you can usually predict when your symptoms will happen. Symptoms happen when your heart is working harder and needs more oxygen than can be delivered through the narrowed arteries. You probably know what things cause your angina. You also know how to relieve your symptoms.

If your doctor tells you that you have stable angina, it means that you're likely to be able to predict when you'll have angina symptoms. Tracking when and why symptoms happen is a great way to understand your angina better. It's also a great way to know what's normal for you. If you know what's normal for you, it'll be easier to tell if you suddenly have symptoms that mean it's time to call for help.

Understanding your normal patterns may also help you make some changes that might reduce symptoms. For example:

• Maybe you notice that your angina comes on when you try to get out of bed quickly. And so you might give yourself a little more time to move from lying down to standing up.
• Perhaps you find that you often have angina right after a big meal. And so you might try eating smaller meals. Or you could give yourself more time to rest and digest after meals.
• Maybe you have symptoms when you do heavy chores, like mowing the lawn or shoveling snow. And so you could try asking a friend or family member to help with those kinds of things.