Ahh, the Holidays!  Time to get together with friends and family for long conversations, reliving the "good ol' days", making new memories, and eating!  Everything would be fine if it was only one holiday meal, but November is the beginning of two months of holiday parties, friends and co-workers bringing by "goodies", and other opportunities to overindulge.  It is this constant indulgence that leads to the annual weight gain and potential impact on our health many of us experience every year.  Why not make this year a little different - a little more heart healthy - by abiding by the following tips?

Plan for the Holiday Calories: This sounds like a foreign concept for many of us, but by making room in your daily caloric intake for the treats you know are coming, you have a much better chance of exiting the holiday season in the same pants you entered it in. Treats only cause you to gain weight if consuming them puts you over your weight maintenance calorie goal.

Keep up your exercise: Exercise not only tones your muscles and speeds your metabolism, it is one of the beast "holiday stress busters"!  Aim for at least three 30-45 minute brisk walks per week. Start a new tradition of walking after holiday meals.  The prospect of taking a walk on an overly full stomach may help you "push away" sooner.

Click here to read more Heart Healthy Holiday Tips.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, author of several best-selling books on staying healthy, believes aesthetics and the state of mind of patients, family members, doctors and nurses are important in healing — and Loveland’s Medical Center of the Rockies is particularly healthful in that realm.

“You should be proud of it,” Oz told local cardiovascular surgeon Fernando Lamounier on Wednesday. “Aesthetically, it’s probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”

Oz, a New York heart surgeon who found fame on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and in the pages of his “You” series of books, toured the 20-month-old Loveland hospital before speaking to a crowd of more than 2,000 at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.

Hospital staffers watched as an entourage of doctors and photographers flanked Oz as he walked the hallways of the hospital.

Oz oohed and aahed over state-of-the-art aspects of the hospital, including a video monitor that alerts family members of their loved one’s surgical progress, and Internet access in patients’ rooms that allows them to learn about their specific ailments and even order their meals.

“This is really cool,” Oz said while trying out the technology.

Click here to read the full article from the Loveland Reporter Herald.

There are a number of different problems that are classified as “heart disease,” but the main one is coronary artery disease.

Most people know that their heart is a muscle. It’s a muscle that pumps blood to the rest of your body.  It also has its own, separate blood supply that keeps the muscle tissue alive.

That’s the job of the coronary arteries. They are the blood vessels that bring oxygen to the heart muscle itself.
 
In Coronary Artery disease, the coronary arteries can become clogged with plaque and inflammatory cells. When this happens, the blood supply to part of the heart can be cut off, which essentially kills the heart muscle.

That’s why heart disease prevention is so important. If we can prevent the coronary arteries from getting clogged with atherosclerotic plaque in the first place, we’re in good shape. But once the clogging process starts, it tends to make itself worse. Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in every developed country.

Click here to read more about Coronary Artery Disease.

Click the image below to watch Dr. Stephen Treat on Colorado and Company.