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Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, and you know what that means… The season for over-eating has officially arrived!

Do you approach Thanksgiving with good intentions? Do you tell yourself that you will not overeat at this year’s feast? You might tell yourself that you will enjoy only one small helping of mashed potatoes and one slice of pie instead of two or three. But when the day actually arrives, it becomes very difficult to resist overindulging and eating as much as possible. The food at a Thanksgiving dinner is very hard to resist. And the day comes only once a year!

There is not necessarily anything wrong with overeating once a year on Thanksgiving. The problem is that you might not limit your overeating to just Thanksgiving. It may be that you will overeat on Thanksgiving and you won’t stop overeating eating until after the New Year. That’s equates to many weeks of eating way too much. And eating in that manner for many weeks in a row, can result in massive weight gain.

It’s not uncommon for Americans to gain several pounds between November and January each year. Unfortunately, if you gain weight during the holiday season you may never lose all of it before the next round of holidays start. Over the course of many years, this can lead to a slow but steady weight gain that can ultimately affect your cholesterol levels blood pressure, and the chance of developing other serious health ailments.

The most important thing to do this holiday season is to be happy and enjoy – but it’s also important to limit your food intake. This does not mean that you have to suffer. It simply means that you should be aware of what (and how much) you are eating.

Following are tips on how eat with your heart in mind this Thanksgiving (and throughout the entire holiday season):

Stick to a regular exercise routine. You may want to put off exercising during the holiday season because it’s a very busy time of year. But if you maintain a regular exercise schedule all year round you will be less likely to gain weight between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

Don’t skip meals. Skipping meals (such as breakfast) usually results in unhealthy and binge eating later in the day. If you stick to eating 3 regular meals a day, with supplemental snacks that are healthy, you will be less likely to crave unhealthy foods that are usually readily available during the holiday season.

Try not to make excuses to eat as much as possible. The phrase, “I can it this because it’s only Thanksgiving once a year” should not be in your vocabulary! Remember that you may want two plates of food, but you can still be satisfied with just one.

Drink a large glass of water prior to your Thanksgiving meal. When you drink a full glass of water prior to eating, it can cause you to feel full – which will result in less eating.

Walk it off. Many people feel like taking a walk after a large Thanksgiving dinner. This is an excellent idea. A long walk can help boost your metabolism and will help your body with its digestion process.

Remember to eat with your heart in mind this Thanksgiving. Your body will appreciate it later!

The post How to Eat With Your Heart in Mind this Thanksgiving appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

The deadline to submit comments through a campaign administered by the American Heart Association and to be delivered to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding a proposed plan to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, electronic cigarettes, hookah tobacco and nicotine gels expired on August 4, 2014. But even though the deadline passed, the topic is still important to highlight in more detail.

The American Heart Association published an article on its website on July 30, 2014 which encouraged individuals and groups who would like to see the FDA adopt its proposed regulation and go even further (banning candy and fruit flavorings that attract children and to restrict marketing to youth), to submit their supporting comments to the FDA. The American Heart Association’s campaign collected letters and comments until August 4th, and planned to deliver all of the compiled letters to the FDA on August 8, 2014.

According to the American Heart Association’s article, the FDA has a commitment to read all of the comments it receives (from the tobacco industry and its supporters as well as from individuals on the other side of the debate – those who are concerned with public health). After considering all of the comments, the FDA will decide if they will make any changes to the proposed regulation.

The FDA takes submitted comments very seriously – in regard to this specific regulation as well as others. And while the FDA is under no obligation to make changes to proposed regulations based on the popularity of comments either in support of or against proposed regulations, it does weigh those comments before making a final decision.

In regard to the issue of regulating tobacco products, the American Heart Association stated in its article that the FDA had received approximately 58,000 comments – a majority of which were authored by the tobacco industry and tobacco users. Susan K. Bishop, an American Heart Association Lobbyist, is quoted in the article with the following statement, “The tobacco industry has mobilized their customers. They have a massive number of people contacting the FDA.”

It was the goal of the American Heart Association to garner interest from the public on this specific topic and encourage the health-concerned public to take a few minutes to draft a supportive comment and submit it to the American Heart Association’s campaign.

One of the major concerns in regard to tobacco is that a large percentage of middle and high school aged teenagers are now smoking cigars and e-cigarettes because they are being marketed with flavorings.

A decision on the new rule should be finalized by April 2015, and we will follow up with more information when it becomes available.

The post Health Advocates from the American Heart Association Support Tobacco Regulation appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

If you’ve been told that you have mitral valve prolapse (also commonly referred to as “MVP”), there is no need to panic. In most cases MVP is not a serious heart condition and does not require any type of medical intervention. In rare cases, MVP can result in mitral valve regurgitation – which may or may not require treatment. But if you have been told that you have MVP, there is no need to panic.

The mitral valve controls the flow of blood through your heart. When your heart beats, the mitral valve opens and closes – allowing blood to flow from the upper chamber of your heart to the lower chamber. The valve is designed to open only in one direction. However, when you have mitral valve prolapse, the valve does not close as smoothly as it does when there is no prolapse. Instead, the valve bulges a little bit every time it shuts.

MVP is not a serious heart condition in the majority of people who have it. If your doctor suspects anything abnormal about your MVP, he or she will likely monitor you for an extended period of time to determine if the condition is becoming problematic, or if it is causing your heart to work harder than normal, thus potentially causing damage.

Who Has this Condition?
Many people have MVP. In fact, it’s an extremely common problem associated with this specific heart valve. But there is very little reason to worry because most people with MVP lead a normal life and do not have to adjust their lifestyle, eating habits, or exercise routines whatsoever. MVP can be found in both men and women, and it is more prevalent in people whose family members also have the condition.

How Will I Know if I Have Mitral Valve Prolapse?
It’s entirely possible that you will not know if you have MVP unless a doctor happens to discover it while listening to your heart with a stethoscope during a regular check-up. In some cases, individuals with MVP have described their condition as feeling like their heart sometimes palpitates or pounds too hard or too fast.

I Have MVP – Now What?
In most circumstances, MVP does not require any type of treatment. If you have been told that you have MVP, it is important to remember that it rarely develops into a serious condition. Nonetheless, if you have been diagnosed with MVP and are concerned, you should schedule an appointment with a cardiologist so your MVP can be evaluated and so that you can rest assured that your condition is not life-threatening. In most cases, an electrocardiogram or an echocardiogram will be ordered and the results will indicate whether you require any type of treatment or further monitoring of your MVP.

The post What is Mitral Valve Prolapse, and Is it Dangerous? appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

Even if you don’t completely understand the concept of “free radicals” – it’s easy to understand that you don’t want them. In basic terms, free radicals can be described as “a chemically unstable molecule in a cell that has an unpaired electron, rendering it highly reactive.” Why are free radicals not good for your body? In many cases, free radicals attack the DNA cells in your body, which cause the otherwise normal cells to not function properly.

How Do Free Radicals Get Into Our Bodies?
There are many theories about free radicals and how they make their way into the body. Many believe that free radicals exist as a part of the normal aging process. However, an increase in free radicals can be a result of eating unhealthy foods, not exercising regularly, living in a highly polluted environment, being exposed to chemicals and radiation, and a host of other factors. Unfortunately, too many free radicals in the body can lead to many different types of health problems, some of which include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other debilitating ailments.

Can We Eliminate Free Radicals?
No matter how healthy your lifestyle and eating habits, there may not be a way to completely eliminate free radicals from your body – especially the free radicals that are present due to the normal aging process. While the human body does have a natural defense mechanism, called antioxidants, to combat free radicals, it is virtually impossible for humans to naturally eliminate all of the body’s free radicals without antioxidant supplements.

Supplemental Antioxidants
There are many supplemental antioxidants on the market that can help your body maintain its health. An example of a highly regarded Antioxidant supplement is Multimmunity, which has a patented formula that is based on ground breaking antioxidant science. However, there are many antioxidant supplements from which to choose, so make sure to discuss antioxidant supplements with your physician before starting any program.

Foods Rich in Antioxidants
The benefits of eating foods rich in antioxidants is tremendous. Following are examples of foods that are recommended to boost the body’s natural antioxidant level:

Small red beans (dried), wild blueberries, red kidney beans (dried), pinto beans, blueberries (cultivated), cranberries, artichoke (cooked), blackberries, prunes, raspberries, strawberries, red delicious apples, granny smith apples, pecans, sweet cherries, black plums, russet potatoes (cooked), black beans (dried), plums, gala apples.

Protect Your Heart With Antioxidant Supplements
If antioxidant supplements are known to help prevent the onset and/or progression of cardiovascular diseases, it makes sense to learn more about them. Make sure to discuss the many benefits of antioxidant supplements with your physician at your next appointment. Taking supplements might be the best way to encourage your body to fight the free radicals that exist in your body.

The post An Explanation of Free Radicals and How Antioxidant Supplements Can Help appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

Gardening is healthy for your heart due to more than one reason! Not only does gardening allow you to grow fruits and vegetables in your own backyard or in a community garden, but the act of gardening is great source of physical fitness. To help promote the health benefits of gardening, the American Heart Association is now offering a new online Gardening Community for gardening enthusiasts to connect, share information, and learn to live healthier. But if you don’t consider yourself a “gardening enthusiast” don’t turn away… the community welcomes gardeners of all ages and skill levels. It’s meant to be a venue for learning about gardening, sharing about gardening experiences, and promoting gardening ideas.

The goal of the American Heart Association is to teach and encourage Americans to improve their cardiovascular health and reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Part of the American Heart Association’s initiative involves various educational and advocacy programs that help and encourage individuals to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle – and this can be accomplished, in part, via garden-based nutrition programs and learning the health benefits of gardening as a whole.

According to the American Heart Association’s Gardening Community website, the following are a few of the reasons the gardening community exists:

• Nearly one in three American children are overweight or obese.
• Fewer than one in 10 high school students receive the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables daily.
• French fries are the most common source of vegetables consumed by children and make up one-fourth of their vegetable intake.

The Gardening Community Website is FREE!
Free to use the Gardening Community website is extensive and encourages users to start a garden chat, meet other gardeners, and find gardening resources. Additionally, users have the capability of posting gardening-related questions in order to spark a conversations about a specific topic, and post photos and videos of their gardening efforts.

Topics of discussion on the Gardening Community website include (but are not limited to) various types of gardens, gardening in different types of environments (e.g. urban areas), how to design a garden, which types of fruits and vegetables grow well in particular climates, and optimal methods for growing. Teachers who are participating in the American Heart Association’s Teaching Garden can use the Gardening Community website to discuss lesson plans, share recipes that work well for young students, and provide other tips for getting children excited and involved in gardening.

The American Heart Association’s Gardening Community is just one of the helpful and educational programs sponsored by the American Heart Association. With a goal of fighting cardiovascular disease and stroke, the American Heart Association has more than 22 million volunteers and supporters all dedicated to promoting the cause of the organization.

The post Enjoy a Healthier Life Through Gardening appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

Now is the time to pay attention to your high school student’s heart! If your child is a high school athlete, it’s important to register him or her for an EveryHeart Foundation cardiovascular screening during the month of August. Why? Because numerous high school athletes in America pass away from undiagnosed heart problems each year – and many of the deaths could have been prevented.

Registration is Easy, Free, and Screenings are Completed in Less Than an Hour

During the month of August, screenings will take place at the following locations:

August 5th – 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Cherokee Trail High School
August 6th – 7:30 am – 1:00 pm – Smokey Hill High School
August 7th – 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Grandview High School
August 8th – 7:30 am – 4:00 pm – Cherry Creek High School

Each screening includes the following:

• Echocardiography – This test allows us to look for: Enlarged Hearts, Holes, Leaky Valves, Muscle Stiffness
• EKG – This test allows us to look for: Cardiac Arrhythmia, Inflammation, Abnormal Blood Vessels
• Blood Pressure Assessment – This test allows us to look for: Blood Pressure, Abnormal Stress Response

Click HERE To Register Today!

The EveryHeart Foundation
It’s the mission of the EveryHeart Foundation to help reduce the number of deaths among high school athletes in the United States who have undetected or preventable cardiovascular disease. Our goal is to help ensure that high school athletes are able to pursue their athletic dreams by participating in their sport with the knowledge that their hearts are healthy and up for the cardiovascular challenge that their sport demands.
A Few Facts to Consider:
• Sudden Cardiac Death is the leading cause of death on school property
• Competitive athletes have three times the normal risk of sudden cardiac arrest
• Only 3% of these deaths occur in those with normal hearts and many deaths are detectable and preventable

EveryHeart Screenings are Completely Free
If your child participates in high school athletics, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from registering him or her for an upcoming EveryHeart Foundation cardiovascular screening. Our screenings are entirely free, and funded by donations. Heart screenings are incredibly beneficial and our medical partners, who are among the most experienced and efficient in the country, believe in the incredible importance of the potentially life-saving heart screenings offered by the EveryHeart Foundation.

At the EveryHeart Foundation, we believe that Every Heart matters. Your high school athlete has the “Heart of a Champion.” Now it’s time to protect it!

If your student is unable to attend one of the free cardiovascular screenings offered this month, make sure to check EveryHeart.org for future screening dates and times.

The post Register TODAY for an Upcoming FREE EveryHeart Foundation Cardiovascular Screening appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

It’s not uncommon for adults to be concerned about cholesterol. In fact, many adults get their cholesterol levels screened each year as part of routine annual exams with their physicians. When high cholesterol is detected, adults are usually told to change their diet and/or to take medication in an attempt to lower their cholesterol levels.

This is how the American Heart Association describes cholesterol and how it’s detected: “Cholesterol can’t dissolve in the blood. It has to be transported to and from the cells by carriers called lipoproteins. Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, is known as “bad” cholesterol. High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, is known as “good” cholesterol. These two types of lipids, along with triglycerides and Lp(a) cholesterol, make up your total cholesterol count, which can be determined through a blood test.”

Despite the fact that most adults are aware of the importance of maintaining healthy cholesterol levels, they rarely spend time thinking about the potential dangers for their children that are associated with unhealthy cholesterol levels. In the past, most pediatricians did not discuss cholesterol with parents at their children’s annual “well visit” exams. But in 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) endorsed a new set of guidelines that promote checking LDL cholesterol levels in children ages 9 to 11. The guidelines discuss the following facts:

• While cardiovascular disease is rare in children, risk factors present in childhood can increase the likelihood a child will develop heart disease as an adult.
• New guidelines will give health care providers an integrated road map to address all the major cardiovascular risk factors as part of children’s annual well visits.
• The new guidelines recommend ways to prevent the development of cardiovascular risk factors and to optimize cardiovascular health starting with breast feeding and by the age of one year, following a diet low in saturated fat.
• Universal screening will more accurately identify children who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease and will emphasize the importance of follow-up by their pediatricians.
• Most children with high cholesterol would be encouraged to practice lifestyle modifications, including a low-fat diet and sufficient physical activity. For children with high blood pressure, the DASH diet is recommended.

What is All of This Really About?
The purpose of the guidelines endorsed by the AAP are not to scare either parents or children. Rather, the guidelines are intended to encourage parents (and teach children) to eat healthy food, to avoid over-indulging at restaurants, to understand the difference between healthy and non-healthy food choices, to get adequate exercise, and to learn how to live an overall healthy lifestyle.

The EveryHeart Foundation
The Boone Heart Institute is the EveryHeart Foundation’s primary medical partner. The mission of the EveryHeart Foundation is to reduce cardiovascular disease in young Americans through advanced diagnostic testing, comprehensive education, and ground-breaking research. One of the main goals of the EveryHeart foundation is to promote early detection of cardiovascular disease as well as to raise awareness and to provide insight into this ever-growing problem that plagues today’s youth. Support the EveryHeart Foundation by making a donation today!

The post Should Children Undergo Regular Cholesterol Screenings? appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

We were recently at BolderBoulder, speaking with runners who swung by our booth. Many asked us about their heart and if they are at more risk because of their running routines. A recent blog post in the NY Times, by Gretchen Reynolds, discussed a new study of marathon runners and their non-running spouses. The study results should reassure anyone headed for a marathon that prolonged training doesn’t damage the heart, a concern that has been raised in previous research.

At the same time, becoming fit as a marathoner doesn’t seem to protect the heart to the extent you might expect, although it may have unexpected benefits for your spouse.

While we all know that exercise is healthy, some research has begun to raise questions about whether it’s possible to overdo a good thing. A few studies have found that long-time endurance athletes can have a heightened risk for abnormal heartbeats, and even for scarring of the heart muscle. Likewise, experiments with lab animals have found possible links between prolonged, extremely strenuous running and undesirable changes in the structure and function of the heart. But the actual incidence of runners having a heart attack during a marathon race is small, a finding that seems to suggest that marathon training can’t be excessively hard on hearts or there would be greater, obvious consequences.

Such inconsistencies in the data about prolonged endurance exercise and heart health prompted researchers to wonder if perhaps past studies were inaccurate. It’s difficult to isolate the risks associated with strenuous exercise from other lifestyle factors, said Beth Taylor, an assistant professor in the health sciences department at the University of Hartford who led the new study, which was published last month in BMJ Open.

Runners whose hearts seemed to have been affected by their exercise habits might also have smoked, eaten unhealthy food or otherwise imperiled their hearts, separately from how much they worked out. So, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues decided to better control for such factors by studying marathon runners along with their domestic partners, who presumably would be sharing their lifestyles if not their physical exertions.

If cardiac health differed among these couples, the scientists felt, they could reasonably conclude that training had played a role, since so many lifestyle factors would be the same. With that idea in mind, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues contacted a slew of runners who had qualified and signed up for the 2012 Boston Marathon, inquired if they had non-running spouses or partners, and asked if both would be willing to have their hearts scanned and cardiovascular disease risk assessed. Forty-two of the runners said yes, along with their spouses or partners. Half of the runners were women. Their ages ranged from 33 to 59, although most were in their mid- to late 40s.

Their partners were around the same age but considerably less active, averaging fewer than two sessions of moderate exercise per week. Many did not formally exercise at all, although most reported frequently walking, gardening or undertaking other types of moderate activity. The day before the 2012 race, the racers and their partners visited a makeshift lab next door to the race expo, where they filled out questionnaires about their exercise and health histories. Scientists then drew blood to determine the volunteers’ cholesterol and triglyceride profiles and measured their height, weight, pulse rate, blood pressure and other vital signs. Finally, each volunteer underwent a noninvasive heart scan to reveal the buildup of arterial plaques, an indication of heart disease. Not surprisingly, the marathon runners were significantly thinner than their partners, although few of the partners were overweight.

The runners also generally had lower blood pressure, heart rates, bad cholesterol and other indicators of cardiac health. But running did not insulate the racers altogether from heart disease, the scientists found. Some of the racers, particularly the oldest ones, carried large deposits of plaques in their arteries, a worrying sign. These older racers also tended to have the highest tallies on a numerical assessment of heart attack risk called the Framingham risk score, which considers medical and lifestyle factors that, along with genetics, can contribute to the development of atherosclerotic plaques. In essence, the scans showed that marathon training did not cancel out the depredations of age, longstanding bad health habits or a family history of cardiac problems, Dr. Taylor said.On the other hand, the scientists found no relationship between the number of hours the runners trained or how fast they ran and the levels of plaque in their arteries, indicating that marathon training had not directly damaged any of these racers’ hearts.

Over all, Dr. Taylor said, the study’s data suggests that if you’re training for a marathon or otherwise doing frequent and prolonged endurance exercise, you’re probably not hurting your heart and are likely strengthening it. But you should be aware of your past health habits and family history and monitor any symptoms, such as shortness of breath, that could be a sign of potential heart troubles. Perhaps the more surprising takeaway of the study, Dr. Taylor said, is that marathon training’s cardiac benefits may be transferable. “The spouses of the runners were quite healthy, too,” she pointed out. More so than many people, they walked and moved around frequently, and had generally robust cardiac risk profiles. Dr. Taylor’s conclusion: if you want improved heart health but can’t be a runner, marry one.

The post Running and your heart. appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.

There have been countless research studies that try to predict a person’s likelihood of developing various diseases and/or medical conditions. In the past, researchers believed that a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI) was a true indicator of impending heart health risks. However, based on results of recent studies, it’s probable that the overall measurement of a person’s waist may have a more direct correlation to heart health – possibly even more so than the person’s BMI.

Is This Information about Waist Size Actually Helpful?
Even if you are considered a “normal” weight (e.g. not overweight or obese), your risk of developing heart disease is increased if your waist size is more than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men. Typically, individuals whose bodies store fat in their mid-sections are referred to as apple- shaped, and those that store fat in their hips are pear- shaped. If you are apple- shaped, it is especially important that you pay attention to the risks – and even more so if you also have a high BMI, because the combination of a large waist size and a high BMI may put you at the highest possible risk.

What’s the Big Deal About Fat Around the Waist?
There are two types of fat. One type is called subcutaneous and the other is called visceral . Subcutaneous fat appears as dimples under the skin – which is commonly referred to as cellulite. Visceral fat, on the other hand, is a dangerous type of fat because it can surround your vital organs and render you more susceptible to heart disease and other life-threatening conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke. Visceral fat is what shows up around the abdominal area – and causes a person to be labeled as “apple shaped.”

How to Reduce Your Risk
If your body type can be described as an apple, there are many ways to reduce your heart disease risk factors – and the most obvious is weight loss. Even a small reduction in the size of your waistline will help. It’s important to remember that many people who are normally classified as thin can still have an apple -shaped body – – and this is not healthy.

What are the Best Ways to Reduce the Size of Your Waistline?
Many weight loss programs that have proven successful for countless individuals include Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Nutrisystem. However, adhering to such programs is not the only way to lose weight and develop a healthier body. For example, limiting the amount of sugar (specifically high fructose) in your diet will result in a healthier body and possibly weight loss. In fact, restricting your diet to healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and low fat choices, as well as severely limiting your intake of sugars, fats and carbohydrates will result in a healthier body. Additionally, exercising regularly is one of the most effective ways to lose weight and reduce the size of your waistline.

The post Are You an “Apple” or a “Pear” Shape? Your Waistline Really DOES Matter! appeared first on Boone Heart Institute | Preventive Cardiology | Denver, Colorado.