Holiday Excess and Heart Attacks

Christmas Holidays are a time of joy and celebration! We celebrate all our holidays eating copious amounts of delicious home made foods that were made with family love.

This year make 'moderation' your mantra. The Associated Press released a story in today's Indianapolis Star that the Holidays are a recipe for deadly heart problems. None of us want that, do we? A 2004 study by Vanderbilt University confirmed it is a nation-wide phenomenon with peaks in death coinciding around the holidays.

We can't be to busy to take care of our cardiovascular health. Here are a few tips:

• Don't forget your medications.
• Avoid eating heavy meals with stress the heart and digestive system.
• Back off on the salt, please.
• Drink in moderation. Alcohol makes our hearts pump harder to get blood to our peripheral arteries. Avoid the egg nog.
• Too much alcohol can trigger irregular heart beats called atrial fibrillation which can cause you to stroke out.
• Exercise, especially as it gets colder.

Remember, hospitals are short staffed over the holidays, so immediate care takes longer.

Peace, Love and Moderation

Chef Wendell