well, cardio is cardio isn't it? I read a few weeks ago from either the cleveland clinic or mayo that the old notion that heart attack patients were supposed to be bed ridden for weeks afterward is flawed. They're saying now that as soon as the patient is fit enough to do some sort of activity they should excercise once a day "till they are breathless". So obviously not till their hacking up a lung, but enough that they are slightly hard of breathe. And they're supposed to do it everyday and slowly build their damaged heart's back up. Apparently now they've confirmed that the heart does indeed rebuild itself, which they weren't sure of for the longest time....it just takes years to turn itself over unlike other internal organs which can take just a few weeks. The point about being breathless is that it stimulates enough circulation to speed up the regeneration process which is crucial in order to survive possible future heart attacks.
But the plaque problem is purely dietary. If I'm not mistaken those ED drugs were developed during heart trials.