Recent studies suggest that cardiomegaly is associated with a higher risk of sudden cardiac death.

[13] Cardiomegaly may diminish over time, but many people with an enlarged heart (dilated cardiomyopathy) need lifelong medication.

[15] Lifestyle factors that can help prevent cardiomegaly include eating a healthy diet, controlling blood pressure, exercise, medications, and not abusing anabolic-androgenic steroids, alcohol and cocaine.

Non-lifestyle risk factors include a family history of cardiomegaly, coronary artery disease (CAD), congenital heart failure, atherosclerotic disease, valvular heart disease, exposure to cardiac toxins, sleep-disordered breathing (such as sleep apnea), sustained cardiac arrhythmias, abnormal electrocardiograms, and cardiomegaly on chest X-ray.

[citation needed] The most common causes of cardiomegaly are congenital (patients are born with the condition based on a genetic inheritance), high blood pressure (which can enlarge the left ventricle causing the heart muscle to weaken over time), and coronary artery disease.

[citation needed] Other possible causes include: In recent years, a consistent theme has occurred in rock and metal drummers dying of drug overdoses and later revealed via autopsy that they were suffering from Cardiomegaly, which may have been worsened by a mix of drug use and the toll such physical exercise takes on the heart, examples of such cases include Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan (Avenged Sevenfold) and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters).

As the heart works harder the actin and myosin filaments experience less overlap which increases the size of the myocardial fibers.