By Laura McAlister
Journal Editor
Through Feb. 15, Yogurt Mountain is having a promotion to raise awareness and funds for the American Heart Association in recognition of American Heart Month.
With each dollar donated to the AHA, Yogurt Mountain will place a card on its wall honoring a loved one or just showing support for heart-healthy lifestyles.
David Kahn, CEO of Yogurt Mountain, said it’s something he wanted to do. After all, he credits research done by the American Heart Association with helping him be more active and heart healthy.
David has a family history of heart problems, and when a close friend suddenly died of a heart attack several years ago, he decided it was time to lose weight and get healthy.
He started by jogging on his treadmill. His goal was to drop 50 pounds.
“The first time I got on the treadmill, I went about five minutes and was pretty worn out,” he said. “Each day, I’d try to go a little longer until I was up to about an hour.”
He wanted to start running longer distances, but an irregular heartbeat was holding him back.
David suffered from the irregular heartbeat for some 20 years. His heart would suddenly start racing, he said. While he was able to learn to live with the condition, about five years ago he decided it was time to see what the problem was.
His doctor referred him to a heart specialist at UAB.
“They took me in this high-tech room that looked like something out of ‘Star Wars,'” he said. “They could go right into the heart and see exactly the spot that’s causing the problem and zap it.”
David underwent an ablation, which directs energy through a catheter to the heart muscles causing the irregular rhythm. It was a simple procedure, he said, that immediately cured the irregular heartbeat.
“It had really just become something that I learned to live with,” he said. “Then I discovered it was a pretty simple procedure to fix.”
With his racing heartbeat back to a normal pace, David was really able to take up running and adopt the healthy lifestyle he wanted.
To date, David has run in 21 marathons, most recently the New York City Marathon last fall. He plans to run in the Mercedes Marathon later this month.
David said without the American Heart Association, he doubts he would have been able to complete one marathon.
“If it weren’t for the research they do, I would never have been able to run like I do now,” he said.
David has also taken his healthy lifestyle into his business ventures. He opened the first Yogurt Mountain in 2009 in Mountain Brook’s Cahaba Village Plaza. All the yogurts served are low fat, and there are several fat-free and sugar-free options. Now there are more than 40 of the yogurt shops in 13 states.
Since yogurt is a heart-healthy snack and February is Heart Month, it only made sense for the stores to partner with the American Heart Association, he said.
Donations to the AHA can be made at all Yogurt Mountain locations.
For more information on American Heart Month and the American Heart Association, visit www.heart.org.
