As a cardiologist and as an individual, I feel fortunate to live in a time period when we have so many effective tools to detect and treat cardiovascular disease. With new and exciting discoveries arriving every day, much of this new information is showing us that heart disease really can be prevented. For people who already have heart disease, we can control the disease to prevent problems down the road. All of this success involves a team effort between the patient and the physician and I find great satisfaction in working with patients to combine diet, exercise, and medications in maintaining a healthy heart.