If you are a male over fifty-five, slightly overweight, out of shape, and hooked on adiet of greasy foods, you are a prime candidate for coronary artery disease, CAD. Ifyou are female over sixty, in menopause, with similar conditions, weigh more than youshould, less than in shape, and prone to eating whatever you want without concernof fat content, you too are a prime candidate for CAD. Statistically, you are now ina group with a high probability of contracting some heart or blood pressure-relatedaffliction. And it doesn't have to be. I know. What follows is my twenty-plus-yearchronicle of living with diagnosed coronary artery disease. I did not have to be acandidate for CAD, and neither should you. If I knew then, before I suffered myfirst heart attack, what I know now, I would not have had that first heart attack andthe eventual triple bypass operation.You can rise above the statistics that one half of the population will sometime intheir life be a diagnosed with CAD. With conscious thought and daily management,you too can defy the odds of contracting a heart related affliction, namely a heartattack. If you have had a heart attack and pulled through, there is life afterward;a good life in fact. A well-managed life filled with tomorrows without chest painsis attainable. You can live more than the generally accepted projection of six yearsbetween heart seizure events, heart attacks.