GUARDaHEART event at the Lyon Air Museum (Photo by Ana Peccin)

In recognition of The World Heart Federation’s World Heart Day, GUARDaHEART promoted its mission of saving lives through heart disease prevention with a James Bond-themed reception and silent auction at the Lyon Air Museum in Orange County Saturday night. Along with corporate sponsor Aviir Inc., the nonprofit’s black-tie red carpet event celebrated award winners in cardiovascular health development and stressed the importance of a healthy lifestyle. It also raised funds to provide education and prevention methods to members of the military, first responders and low-income families. 

Miss California America 2013 Kimberly Lattimore is the founder of Thrive Together NOW and a fitness and health coach working with GUARDaHEART to develop a healthy lifestyle group in her community.

“What’s really neat about this program is they have a test that gives you a five-year window of how at-risk you are for a heart attack,” Lattimore said. “I just got my results in the mail today, and I was very excited because I’m below my ‘heart age.’”

The tests she’s referring to are MIRISK and MIRISK VP—designated to different age groups—which detect the proteins associated with the main cause of a heart attack. About 75 percent of heart attacks are caused by vulnerable plaque, which builds up in the walls of the arteries. Most traditional risk tests often don’t catch the plaque. Because about half of all heart attack victims have normal cholesterol, they’re that much more likely to wrongly assume they’re in the clear.

Dr. Douglas Harrington, AVIIR Inc. CEO and USC Keck School of Medicine professor, presented one of the night’s awards. 

“Thirty years ago, I was a member of a heart transplant team that came out of Stanford, and of the first 30 transplants we did, 28 of them were due to disease that was preventable,” Dr. Harrington told Neon Tommy. As he’s gone through his career and developed tools to help people better understand their risk of disease, “it became very clear that people did not know the most common cause of a heart attack,” which is plaque rupture.

Actor Eric Roberts of “The Dark Knight” and “The Expendables” spoke in front of the crowd. Roberts said that GUARDaHEART "literally" saved his life. His wife Eliza told the story of how Roberts came with her to a doctor's appointment and wanted to take a test, too. When he got on the treadmill and struggled, the doctors discovered he had a blockage and needed a stent. Now, he says, he’s healthier than ever.

Other celebrities in attendance included Kevin Sorbo and Jeff Daniels. In spirit of the James Bond theme, attendees enjoyed shaken-not stirred-cocktails, posed with a Sean-Connery-as-James-Bond look-alike and admired the WWII planes and cars in the museum. Small planes took off into the night sky just outside the museum hangar room’s large windows.

The highlight of the evening was when International Heart Award winner His Highness Sheik Khalid Bin Jabor Al Thani told his story of his lifestyle overhaul and how he lost 48 pounds by eating well and exercising regularly.

“With simple measures you can really avoid and avert catastrophe,” His Highness told Neon Tommy. “You can’t prevent death, because you never know when you will die, but you can always live a good life and improve the quality of people's lives who have so far not lived a healthy life.”

His Highness gives “Die Another Day” a whole new meaning.

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