The heart of the matter: Demands on CEOs Can Lead to Cardiac Problems.

• Author: Rogers, Melinda
• Position: TIMEOUT FOR HEALTH

You didn't rise to the top of the game as your company's CEO by being a slacker.

Long hours don't scare you. Neither do cross-country flights for business and client meetings. Pulling an all-fighter to make sure you seal the deal tomorrow? That's kids' stuff in your playbook by now. But sometimes it's hard to ignore the tiny voice in the back of your head that nags you about your health--the one that questions whether 80-hour work weeks, food on the go and haphazard sleep patterns are going to catch up with you in the long run.

If statistics from University of Utah Health Care are any indication, the answer is yes, despite how indestructible top executives might often feel in their daily lives. CEOs and other executives make up a solid percentage of heart patients at the university's Cardiovascular Center, according to Amit Patel, M.D., an associate professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

In fact, approximately 15 percent of the 20,000 patients who visit the University of Utah Cardiovascular Center each year meet the definition of "high-stress CEOs." Heart patients who fall into this category are usually on the road with inconsistent eating patterns and frequently must adjust to changes in time zones as they travel from coast to...