--- title: The Best Way to Survive a Heart Attack Without Drugs description: There’s no 100% effective way to avoid a heart attack, but doing this could significantly reduce your chances of surviving one if you do canonical: https://time.com/4201850/heart-attack-drugs-exercise/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-01T14:53:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:40.142Z article:section: Health og:title: How to Survive a Heart Attack Without Drugs og:description: There’s no 100% effective way to avoid a heart attack, but doing this could significantly reduce your chances of surviving one if you do og:url: https://time.com/4201850/heart-attack-drugs-exercise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a5e7a2ebbdc0c10/6987789ce53aba58bb4d6e44/health-weight-exercise-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1926 og:image:height: 1083 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Weight Loss Health Exercise Weights og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Survive a Heart Attack Without Drugs twitter:description: There’s no 100% effective way to avoid a heart attack, but doing this could significantly reduce your chances of surviving one if you do twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a5e7a2ebbdc0c10/6987789ce53aba58bb4d6e44/health-weight-exercise-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Best Way to Survive a Heart Attack Without Drugs > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=12017410-ae77-46a3-9be3-78429f86cd9a&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Choosing to Wait: A New Approach to Treating Breast Cancer at Its Earliest Stages [Watch (HLS stream): Choosing to Wait: A New Approach to Treating Breast Cancer at Its Earliest Stages](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qPQnIqEX.m3u8) (5:56)  _Published 2015-10-01. Colletti, 60, was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as Stage 0 breast cancer, in April 2014. But rather than immediately having surgery, Colletti opted for a new form of alternative treatment: active surveillance._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Feb 1, 2016 2:53 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Feb 1, 2016 2:53 PM UTC The advice for people who are at higher risk of having a heart event is pretty straightforward. If you have high cholesterol, are overweight or obese or have [high blood pressure](http://time.com/4109849/should-your-blood-pressure-be-way-lower-than-it-is/)—among other risk factors—you should eat less animal fat, eat more plants and [exercise](http://time.com/4061830/exercise-heart-failure/) to keep the heart muscle strong. In fact, rehabilitation programs for people who have had heart problems revolve around this advice. Studies show that people who watch their diet and exercise are less likely to have a heart attack. But if they do have a heart event, how well do they fare—and how much of a difference do these changes really make? **MORE:** [The New Rules for Keeping Your Heart Safe](http://time.com/4197789/the-new-rules-of-the-heart/) Dr. Michael Blaha and his colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease has some good news on that. In a study published in _Mayo Clinic Proceedings_, they found that people who had better fitness before their first heart attack are more likely to survive the attack than those with lower fitness. The researchers studied the electronic health records of more than 2,000 men and women who took a treadmill test as a way to measure how fit they were. The people with the highest fitness scores were 40% less likely to die after their first heart attack than those with lower fitness scores. And a third of the people with the lowest fitness died within a year of their first heart attack. **MORE:** [Women’s Heart Attacks Look Nothing Like Men’s: Report](http://time.com/4192350/heart-attack-women/) “The thinking here is that if you are more fit at baseline, you are more willing to withstand lots of insults and have a good outcome if you do have a heart attack,” says Blaha. “It’s quite a remarkable effect.” The findings are especially relevant since so many people have at least some risk factors for heart disease, he says. These results suggest that making changes to address them can be important in helping more people to remain healthy even if they do have a heart attack. “Most of my patients come to me because they are concerned about their risk of having a heart attack,” says Blaha. “They have a family history of heart problems, or high cholesterol, or smoked in the past, and they want to know what they can do. Now we know that if they get their risk factors under control and increase their fitness level that they are more likely to survive a heart attack if they have one.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] One of the best things about my job is that I see patients who have a potentially lethal diagnosis and I'm able to be part of what allows them to be cured of their disease. The flip side is that one of the least rewarding experiences I have Of. And when I see a patient who is so fearful and so not at peace with her own body that she feels that she has to do extraordinary things to be free of her anxiety of breast cancer. [ MUSIC ] My daughter's initial reaction was, [ MUSIC ] Mom, if it was me I'd take it out. You just get rid of it. My husband and I did a ton of research, and we reviewed studies, and all the information out there, and decided that really we don't have to have surgery. That it's not life- threatening, and I'll probably die from something else. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So if you would If you felt a nodule or [ INAUDIBLE ] I'm fortunate to be on the early side of things where most of the patients I see have very early, very treatable problems and I think that's how I got interested in DCIS, because of all the so- called cancers that we diagnose now, DCIS is the very earliest form. [ MUSIC ] Active surveillance is very new. And for many people, both on the physician's side and the patient's side, it's a scary proposition. I'm certainly not condoning it for everyone. I'm not recommending that everyone with DCIS follow a path of active surveillance. But I think it should be considered in the context of all the options that patients have. All of us have different comfort levels of how far we're willing to go to be sure we don't die of this and that other disease. But we all die of something. And we can't prevent everything. [ MUSIC ] So in April of 2014 I was diagnosed with DCIS. When they gave me the diagnosis I initially felt a lot of dread, got sick to my stomach and just thought oh no so what is this going to lead to. My daughter's initial reaction was, mom, if it was me, I'd take it out. And that was initially how she felt until we discussed it. And when we talked about the risks of surgery and radiation treatments, and some of the things that can happen with that, and the fact that these are pre- cancerous cells that may just sit there and never do anything. She came around. So, DCIS stands for ductal carcinoma in situ. And the in situ part is that the cells, the abnormal cells are contained within the ducts of the breast Once the cells break out of the ducts its called an invasive cancer, and those are the cancers that can spread to the lymph nodes and can spread to other parts of the body and eventually cause mortality. [ SOUND ] There have been a couple of very important studies that have been published lately which have shown that for the very low risk DCIS Whether you ever operate on them, whether you do a lumpectomy or whether you do a mastectomy, the patients are equally likely to not die of breast cancer. So removing both your breasts at that phase really doesn't help a woman to live longer. And I feel that for some of those patients They see mastectomy as being a way to rid themselves of anxiety. And that makes me sad. I think there are much better ways to reduce anxiety than to do a pretty major operation after which you're never really going to be the same. And the side effects that patients have in terms of discomfort with themselves. Never feeling like they're whole again. A lot of the work that I do in clinic is being with patients at probably one of the most vulnerable and scary times of their lives. And to be part of that process and to see patients through that is incredibly rewarding. The initial fear that you have I think is just because you don't know what's going to happen, but you know if you read the studies And you look at the information out there, I don't feel afraid at all. I feel great about my decision. If options were given to women, more women would choose active surveillance, but because there's no options out there, people don't know to even ask. Ask. 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