A bad economy can take its toll on the heart with increased stress, poor eating and forgoing healthful activities like going to the gym when money is tight. UCLA cardiologists suggest the following tips to help protect the heart during this time of financial uncertainty.

"We've seen an increase in patients complaining about heart palpitations, anxiety and stress over the past months," said Dr Karol Watson, associate professor of cardiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Much of heart disease can be prevented, that's why it is so important to follow a healthy lifestyle and to control your cardiovascular risk factors."

The proposal authorizes the public employees' health insurance plan to pay for gastric bypass surgery for up to 100 obese state government workers a year.

"Somebody is trying to steal the show," says Rachel Nichols.

That somebody is her 7 month old son Ian. In December 2006, Rachel had gastric bypass surgery. At 262 pounds, she wanted to lose weight. She did, and soon after, had Ian.

"I was in a very stressful time in my life and I had not expected for anything to happen for a while, and we immediately conceived."

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am a 37-year-old man, I weigh 310 pounds and I am 5 feet 7 inches tall. I know this could do me in, but I have tried everything I can think of to lose weight, without any success. I have dieted and have exercised, but weight doesn't come off. My wife is careful about what we eat. She wants me to have the operation for losing weight. She's worried about me. I have three young children. What do you think of weight-loss surgery?

WHEN THE high-powered Philadelphia attorney came to me for help, she said just two words: "Stress reduction."

Then she explained: "I work an average of 14 to 15 hours a day, and I need an outlet other than alcohol and food for all of this stress I'm under."

Since law school 10 years ago, this accomplished, 37-year-old woman I'll call Crystal had slowly allowed her weight to creep up an additional 100 pounds. Now, the stress combined with the excess weight was literally becoming too much to bear.

Interested in taking first steps toward more healthful eating? Turn to two new inspirational books for help: “The Flexitarian Diet,? by Chicago dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner and “Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating,? by cookbook author Mark Bittman.