Sex is safe for most heart patients

(Health.com) -- If you've recently had a heart attack or heart surgery, you might be concerned that revving up your pulse during a moment of passion could be dangerous. Rest assured: Resuming sexual activity is perfectly safe for most heart patients, according to new guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA).

Certain patients, such as those with severe heart disease who have symptoms while at rest, should put off sex until their condition has stabilized. But if you can walk briskly or climb two flights of stairs without experiencing chest pain, abnormal heart rhythms, or shortness of breath, you're almost certainly ready to start having sex again, the guidelines say.

The authors stress, however, that all heart patients should check with their doctor before resuming their sex life. Just as important, the guidelines encourage patients -- and their partners -- to discuss any feelings of sex-related anxiety or depression with a health professional.

"Both patients and the patient's spouse or partner often have anxieties about resuming sexual activity after the patient has been diagnosed with heart disease or has undergone a heart procedure," says Glenn N. Levine, M.D., the lead author of the guidelines and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. "Sometimes it is actually the partner who is more anxious than the patient."

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The guidelines, which appear in the journal Circulation and have been endorsed by a host of physicians' groups, are the first ever from the AHA to focus on heart disease and sex -- a subject that gets far too little attention, the authors say. Most cardiologists fail to raise the topic with their patients, and they are even less likely to ask about anxiety or depression, Levine says.

Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, says many patients who have a heart attack or undergo bypass surgery become depressed, which can reduce libido and affect sexual function. To make matters worse, he says, avoiding sex can in turn worsen depression.

"That's why it's so important for us to talk to patients about this, and tell them this is not the end of [their] sex life," says Kopecky, who has studied sexual activity in heart patients but did not participate in writing the new guidelines.

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Heart problems during sex are very rare. Less than 1% of all heart attacks are triggered by sexual activity, Levine and his coauthors note, and the odds are even lower for people who exercise regularly. A sedentary person's risk of having a heart attack roughly triples during sex, while an active person's risk rises by just 20%.

But in either case the absolute risk is extremely small, especially since intercourse typically lasts for minutes, rather than hours. The chances that a heart-attack survivor will experience another heart attack or die in any given hour is roughly 1 in 100,000, for instance; during sex those odds increase to no more than about 1 in 33,000.

Still, the guidelines recommend that heart-attack survivors wait at least a week after their attack to resume having sex. Patients who have had bypass surgery or other major heart surgery should wait at least six to eight weeks, the authors say, although sex is generally safe several days after minimally invasive surgery to clear blocked blood vessels.

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The new guidelines address all forms of heart disease, including coronary artery disease, heart failure, heart-rhythm disorders (arrhythmias), and valve problems.

If a heart patient's condition is at all uncertain after an initial consultation with a doctor, the guidelines recommend that he or she undergo an exercise stress test, which involves monitoring heart activity and breathing while walking (or running) on a treadmill.

Even after being cleared for sex, patients may want to take some basic precautions. According to the guidelines, doctors should advise their patients to avoid heavy meals and alcohol before sex, use a position that allows for free breathing, and avoid "unfamiliar surroundings and partners." (Most documented cases of sudden death during intercourse involve extramarital sex, the guidelines note.)

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In addition, patients may need to temporarily lower their expectations. "The achievement of orgasm may require a greater degree of exertion and may not be a realistic initial goal in some patients," Levine and his colleagues write.

Heart patients' concerns about intimacy are "one of those things that gets swept under the rug too often, by not only the caregivers but also the patient and the spouse or the family," Kopecky says. "I think having guidelines like this is very helpful -- to have it out there and talk about [sex] and say it is OK to do."

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Cruise ship's cook says captain ordered dinner after crash

(CNN) -- The captain of the Costa Concordia ordered dinner for himself and a woman after the ship struck rocks off Italy's coast, a cook from the ship told a Filipino television station.

In an interview with GMA Network, cook Rogelio Barista said Capt. Francesco Schettino ordered dinner less than an hour after the accident.

"We wondered what was going on. ... At that time, we really felt something was wrong. ... The stuff in the kitchen was falling off shelves and we realized how grave the situation was," Barista told GMA.

Schettino ordered dinner around 10:30 p.m. Friday, Barista said. Authorities say the ship struck the rocks at 9:41 p.m.

"I have had 12 years of experience as a cook on a cruise ship. ... I have even witnessed fires, so I wasn't that scared," Barista said. "But I did wonder, though, what the captain was doing ... why was he still there."

The ship hit rocks off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night.

At least 11 people are known to have died in the disaster, and 21 are still missing, according to the Italian Crisis Unit.

Criticism from both Costa Cruises and the authorities has focused so far on Schettino, who is under house arrest and facing possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.

Coast guard records published Thursday by an Italian newspaper pile further pressure on the captain of the Concordia and his officers, suggesting that the authorities first became aware of the crash from a friend of the mother of a passenger about 15 minutes after the ship hit rocks.

Schettino's brother-in-law defended him in an Italian newspaper Thursday.

Schettino "managed to avoid a tragedy -- it could have been worse," Maurilio Russo said in Corriere della Sera.

And he denied that the captain had abandoned ship.

"He was not running away, he came down (from the ship) to survey the damage," Russo said.

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Mom claims in viral blog that disabled child denied transplant

(CNN) -- Can a patient be rejected for a kidney transplant based on a developmental disability? A New Jersey mother alleges in her blog that this happened to her 3-year-old daughter, and it has sparked an Internet uproar.

Whether a person with a mental disability qualifies for an organ transplant is a decision made on a case-by-case basis, based on that patient's health, experts say.

On Thursday, Chrissy Rivera wrote in the blog wolfhirschhorn.org about her latest doctor's visit concerning her daughter, Amelia. Rivera writes in the blog that Amelia was ruled out from receiving a kidney transplant because of her developmental disability.

The blog post went viral and inspired an online petition on Change.org that had collected more than 26,000 signatures by 1 p.m ET Wednesday.

It's not possible to confirm Rivera's story with the hospital because of privacy protection laws. CNN contacted Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, but the hospital said it had no comment other than a statement posted on Facebook.

Amelia, nicknamed Mia, has the genetic disorder Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, which delays growth, development and intellectual abilities. People with this syndrome have unusual physical features such as dry skin, curvature of the spine, dental problems, cleft palate or cleft lip, and weak muscle tone that can cause short stature, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Depending on the type of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, the median life expectancy is no higher than 34 years, according to a 2001 study published in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

Amelia has been a patient at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia almost all her life, said her father, Joe Rivera. But her kidneys are failing, according to the Riveras. Her nephrologist estimated she has six months to one year before needing a transplant, the girl's parents said.

In the blog entry, Chrissy Rivera detailed a doctor's visit on January 10. She wrote that a doctor on the transplant team and a social worker said that Amelia could not be a candidate for kidney transplant "because of her mental delays."

The doctor warned that the medications Amelia has to take after a transplant are very dangerous and could cause seizures and brain damage, the blog post said. According to Rivera, she was told that it was a different case for Amelia compared with other children, because "she is already brain damaged and mentally retarded."

Amelia's dad was also in the room during the conversation.

"I don't know how I didn't jump across the table," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "I was more in shock. I felt like I was frozen."

Rivera said they did not ask that Amelia be placed on the transplant waiting list, which has 90,150 candidates seeking kidney transplants. The Riveras wanted to see whether they or other volunteers could be a donor match for her.

Children even as young as Amelia can receive adult organs -- these body parts can be sliced in a way to fit inside a child's body.

Amelia's parents had not been tested to see whether they matched yet.

"We were going into the meeting thinking we're going to be informed on the process," Rivera said. "Instead he (the doctor) gives us a paper that said she's mentally retarded so she doesn't qualify."

His wife ended her blog post urging readers to share Amelia's story. "We are in the year 2012 and my child still does not have the right to live, the right to a transplant, because she is developmentally delayed," Rivera wrote.

Without knowing the child's medical information, it's impossible to know whether there were other factors that shaped the doctor's recommendation regarding Amelia's transplant.

On its Facebook page, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia stated that, "We do not disqualify potential transplant candidates on the basis of intellectual abilities. We have transplanted many children with a wide range of disabilities, including physical and mental disabilities."

In response to the barrage of comments on its Facebook page, the hospital wrote: "We're listening. We hear your concerns and take seriously your posts, emails and phone calls."

During a discussion on CNN Tuesday, former prosecutor Seema Iyer said, "I would love to hear from the hospital, because these hospitals are constantly in fear of being sued," and said that there could be other issues in this case.

Rivera said someone from the hospital called Sunday about scheduling another appointment.

"We never said anything about CHOP," he said. "Some of the people ranting about Facebook, we haven't said one bad thing. We love CHOP. We want things to be fixed."

There are no national guidelines over transplants involving mentally disabled patients. The United Network for Organ Sharing, the private, nonprofit organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system, does not have rules about what to do in cases of patients with mental disabilities.

Doctors can refuse to consider a patient for an organ transplant if there is another illness or complications such as a severe infection or cancer that is likely to limit the life span.

Mental disabilities should not factor into the decision making for transplants, so long as the patient has strong support from family and caregivers who would ensure that the required medications and care is given, said Dr. Raul de Velasco, the clinical ethics program director at the University of Miami.

"The mental disability should not be the reason why you should not receive a kidney," said de Velasco. The decision should come down to "a medical problem, not the value of the life of a mentally disabled person."

The issue of developmental delay is a difficult one for transplant doctors.

"It's such an unpredictable area; there's not a lot of info known," said Dr. George Mazariegos, the chief of pediatric transplantation at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, about various developmental disabilities. "Therefore these decisions are usually individualized, based on the patient's conditions, their absolute need for transplant and other aspects of the patient's condition."

All transplant recipients have to take immune-suppressing medication to make sure there is no rejection of the new organ.

"Because many individuals with disabilities have a guardian or health care provider making sure they're getting to their appointments, the compliance is not an issue," said Marilee Martens, program director of Nisonger Center at The Ohio State University.

Martens wrote a 2006 report examining the outcome of patients with developmental delays who received kidney transplants. The report published in Pediatric Transplantation concluded that the one-year patient survival rate was 100% and the three-year outcome was 90%.

In Amelia's case, it's difficult to draw any conclusions because, "all we know is what the mom reported hearing. We don't know what the physician stated," she said.

On the flip side, patients who have mental disabilities or neurological delays can qualify to be live organ donors after undergoing screening processes and consent from the family.

Joe Rivera said over the past few days, they've heard from other parents of children with developmental disabilities, who say they were excluded from transplants.

All kids deserve a chance, he said.

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From sex toys to scales at CES

(CNN) -- Connectivity was the name of the game at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, held last week in Las Vegas -- especially when it came to health-related products. From cloud-connected scales to music-connected sex toys, these gadgets rose above the rest as those that might really help you keep your New Year's resolutions.

Sleep soundly

A small, lightweight band users wear on their heads during sleep, the Zeo Sleep System measures brain waves while you're in dreamland, and will sync via Bluetooth with your smart device.

Zeo's free app plots out how many hours of quality snooze time you're getting each night. Great feedback for our highly caffeinated, tech-obsessed society, it also plots out sleep quality based on behaviors you input.

How much did those three glasses of vino affect your sleep? How about that late night fast-food run, or actual run?

Zeo gives you concrete tips for improving your sleep routine based on your habits, and will even wake you up at the optimum time in your sleep cycle. The Zeo is available for a one-time purchase price of $99. (No monthly subscription required.)

Body bands

A bevy of body bands made a splash at CES this year, among them the BodyMedia Fit and the Basis Band.

BodyMedia's Fit monitoring system consists of a small electric band the user wears on his or her arm, that works in conjunction with a software interface that's available on your smartphone or online. Users input their daily calorie intake, and the device monitors calories burned.

The band uses sweat sensors, an accelerometer and skin temperature monitors to figure out how much exercise you're doing, and for how long. It compares that to your food intake to give a picture of your daily health. The accelerometer knows when you're lying on your back for hours at a time (presumably sleeping), and adds that to your fitness picture as well.

The Fit CORE is available for $149, but requires plugging in to synch your data. The new Fit LINK is Bluetooth-enabled for wireless synching, and is available for $179. Both products require a $6.95 monthly subscription to BodyMedia's online dashboard.

Similar to the BodyMedia's Fit, the Basis Band adds real-time heart rate monitoring to the mix by using a optical engine that "looks through the skin to see actual blood flow," similar to the technology used in pulse oximeters (those little things they put on your finger at the doctor's office.)

The Basis Band is also worn on the wrist rather than on the arm, and looks more like a trendy watch than a fitness monitor. The Basis is available for pre-order, shipping sometime this quarter; and will be $199. The price includes lifetime access to the cloud service and online interface -- no monthly subscription required.

Smart medical devices

Smart medical devices abounded on the expo floor this year.

The Withings Wi-fi Body Scale, a sleek device that looks like an iPhone you can step on, connects with your iPhone, or other iOS or Android-capable phone.

The scale measures your weight, lean and fat mass and calculates your BMI almost instantaneously. To keep things simple (and less depressing), the display only shows your weight -- the rest of the information floats up to the cloud, and is available on your smartphone. The free app interface also lets you invite friends, family members or your doctor to view your progress; and it will keep track of data for up to eight users.

The Withings Wi-fi Scale is available for $159, which includes lifetime access to the web and phone service. Unfortunately, just because this scale is cloud-connected, doesn't mean you're going to be any lighter.

Withings also had another smart medical device: the iPhone Blood Pressure Cuff. Wrap it around your arm and then plug this bad boy into your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. A small compressor in the device inflates the cuff, using power from your device.

Once the reading is complete, the information is logged in a free app, and is available to send to your doctor for analysis and tracking. The cuff is available for $129 with no recurring monthly fees.

California-based iHealth Labs also brought a Wi-Fi scale and blood pressure cuff to the table; but a third product really caught our attention: the Smart GlucoMeter. As more of the connected generation starts dealing with diabetes, this high-tech tool may encourage diabetics to check their blood sugar more often.

The device is simple: Plug a pack-of-gum-sized accessory into the bottom of your Apple device, insert a test strip, prick your finger (unfortunately, they haven't been able to eliminate that step). Put a drop of blood on the strip. Within a few seconds, the device measures your blood sugar, and catalogs it for you and your doctor to track. The GlucoMeter is pending approval with the FDA, and should be available in the latter half of 2012. The price has not yet been set.

Health apps

Just as cool as some of the hardware at CES was the software. "Gamification" of health was a popular phrase on the show floor, and several companies weighed in with entries to that category. Among the coolest were ...

UnitedHealth Group's OptumizeMe is a social fitness app that lets you challenge friends and family to get healthy. The app allows users to make their own health challenges or select from a list of popular challenges. Among them: competitions to see who can walk the most steps in a day, who can be the first to run 100 miles, and who can eat their daily servings of fruits and veggies.

The app allows you to add a prize for the top dog and share your results on social networking sites with friends. OptumizeMe is a free app, and it allows you to sync fitness information with your employer's benefits plan if your company has United Healthcare coverage. (TimeWarner, CNN's parent company, is a member of United Healthcare insurance coverage.)

This app isn't a new entry into the category, but a much improved one. Lose It! is a weight-loss management tool that allows users to keep track of food and exercise on the go. The app has a catalog of thousands of the most popular foods, and all of the nutrition information for each of them.

Popular new additions to the app include bar-code scanning of your favorite prepackaged food items, the ability to create and share custom foods and recipes with your friends, and a FourSquare-like badge-earning system, that rewards users' daily entries, weight loss milestones, and sharing activities.

Lose It! is a free app, and will integrate data from many of the connected medical devices listed above into your health picture.

The cool stuff

There are a few other notable additions to the list, though they only sort of qualify as health devices.

The 4Moms Origami Stroller is so cool, it might make you want a baby! This "iPhone of baby strollers" both collapses and rebuilds itself at the touch of a button, using on-board motors that are charged when the user pushes the stroller. It also features daytime-running lights, a cupholder, and a smartphone-charging pouch (using the same charge-as-you-push technology).

An onboard LCD screen monitors the weather, battery level and whether or not your child is in the seat -- critical info if you're considering pushing the "fold" button. But rest assured, the device isn't as scatter-brained as new moms tend to be, and won't fold if your bambino is inside. The origami is available for $849.

The Nest Thermostat gives some much needed love to the oft-neglected category of home heating and cooling interfaces. This $249 piece of wall art automatically learns your temperature preferences, and your comings and goings to make sure your house is cool when you want it to be.

Users can also control the Wi-Fi connected device remotely via smartphone; and special plastic technology enables it to pick up the color of the wall it's on to blend in with your decor.

And for those of you whose New Year's resolutions included having more, uh, fun in the bedroom, the OhMiBod musical vibrators use an audio-enabled microchips to vibrate to the beat of your favorite music. The line features personal-use and partner-friendly devices; even a wearable model to take with you to the clubs. This product was a little difficult to test on the show floor, though.

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Fitness classes streaming online

(CNN) -- It's miserable outside. The whole world is a depressing gray color that just makes you want to lie on the couch and watch reruns of "Sex and the City."

You don't have time to pack your gym bag, drop off the kids, drive to the fitness studio, shower and change, pick up the kids and get back home before dinner.

Plus, you're really tired of floor mats that reek and that woman in the back row who always steps left instead of right, effectively knocking you down on your out-of-shape gluteus maximus.

Whatever your reason is for not wanting to hit the gym, Kristin Knee of Flirty Girl Fitness understands.

"I don't even want to go to my own studio when it's raining," she said with a laugh.

That's why late last year, she and her sister, Kerry, launched Flirty Girl Fitness LIVE, a Web service that streams three or four of their franchise's group classes every day.

Subscribers can log in at home and participate in classes like "Bikini Bootcamp" or "Hottie Body Boxing" from their living room. The classes stay online for 24 hours and then are replaced with the next day's workouts. Unlimited subscription passes are $15 a month.

Online video streaming is just starting to blossom in the fitness industry, IDEA Health and Fitness Association editor Sandy Todd Webster says. Several sites offer similar programs, including Yogis Anonymous, Connect Online Fitness, EMG Live Fitness and DailyBurn.

"It seems like the next natural progression to home fitness DVDs," Webster said. "It's another way of making fitness more convenient for yourself."

Knee was shocked by how quickly the LIVE service caught on with her regular members. People were doing classes on their lunch break at work or logging in while on vacation.

"You know you have a [workout] DVD, and it's an awesome DVD, but the girl tells the same joke every day," Knee said. "This is always live, always fresh, and you feel like you're there."

Variety is one of the reasons Joyce Wells loves group fitness classes. But when Wells moved to the suburbs from New York, she was disappointed with the caliber of local studios.

The businesswoman remembered how much her colleagues at Microsoft had loved video conferencing during meetings. Her subsequent research on online paid content revealed astonishing numbers: In 2010, the National Football League raked in $500 million in revenue from its streaming services; Major League Baseball earned $450 million. Netflix's digital revenue totaled more than $1.5 billion.

So Wells launched EMG Live Fitness, an Internet-based fitness studio that streams classes from instructors across the country. There's no subscription for Wells' site; classes are bought for $5 apiece.

In Wells' opinion, the fitness industry is dragging its feet in making the transition online. The brick-and-mortar gyms are afraid of catalyzing their current market, she says.

"It's going to be like Netflix was to Blockbuster. Blockbuster refused to let go of that model, and look at what happened to them." (Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in September 2010).

Wells' target market is stay-at-home mothers and people who are obese. But online classes appeal to anyone who's uncomfortable in a gym setting, Webster says.

"You hear, 'I can't go to the gym until I get in shape,' " Webster said. "This gives them privacy ... to experience it on their own without feeling self-conscious. This could go a long way to promoting compliance because it's convenient and portable."

Webster says personal trainers also use online video libraries to encourage clients to keep up with their workouts.

While on-demand fitness video libraries are nothing new, they're becoming more elaborate. Fitness company Daily Burn recently introduced HD-quality, customized video workouts on DailyBurn.com. The workouts are led by the "DB6," a team of six instructors who have a variety of areas of expertise.

DailyBurn asks new users questions about their ability levels and goals. It then uses the site's "IntelliBurn" technology to analyze and stream a personalized workout.

By adding the video service, CEO Andy Smith and his producers have turned the site into one giant personal trainer.

"It doesn't put you in a certain bucket," Smith said. "It learns about you as you go, constantly monitoring what workout you did yesterday, are you hitting a plateau. ... People really want to stay motivated and be told what to do."

Nearly 20% of all TVs worldwide will be connected to the Internet by 2016, according to Digital TV Research, which will make it even easier for online fitness videos to infiltrate America's living rooms.

Put bluntly, there are no more excuses.

"People are realizing more and more that there's not a magic pill for [weight loss]," Smith said. "You just need to get started."

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Twin winter storms slam Pacific Northwest

(CNN) -- Snow was pelting Seattle and accumulating on roads early Wednesday as the city was poised to see what could be one of its largest-ever snowfalls in more than 70 years.

The Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area may see between 4 and 8 inches of snow as the second of twin storms moves across the Pacific Northwest, according to the National Weather Service.

The southwest interior of Washington state, including the capital, Olympia, could see 5 to 10 inches of snow, the weather service said.

Precipitation moving in from the south and west is combining with cold air moving south from Canada to create the heavy snowfall, said Dustin Guy, a meteorologist at the weather service's Seattle office.

If snowfall amounts top 7 inches, the winter weather event will rank among Seattle's 10 worst since the early 1940s, when record-keeping began, he added. A series of severe winter storms and record-breaking cold also hit the region in the 1950s, according to CNN affiliate KOMO.

While that amount of snow is no problem in places that receive snow regularly, heavy snowfall is relatively rare in Seattle, where steep hills can make winter travel treacherous.

Nevertheless, city officials maintain they are prepared for the storm, said CNN's Thelma Gutierrez. De-icing has begun on bridges and overpasses, some emergency shelters were opened, schools were closed and some flights were canceled.

High-wind warnings were in effect along the coast, where winds could gust to hurricane force -- knocking down trees and causing power outages, said CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward.

Wednesday's snowfall in Seattle may equal its annual average, Ward said.

Mountainous areas of the Pacific Northwest will see even more snow, with the largest accumulations on the eastern slopes of the Cascades, according to the weather service. Significant snowfall is expected across southern Washington, northwest Oregon and into western Idaho.

From late Tuesday through early Thursday, 2 feet to 3.5 feet of snow is forecast for the mountains east of Seattle, Guy said. Mount Rainier could see 10 feet of snow by Friday.

However, the snow in Portland, Oregon, had changed into heavy rain Wednesday morning as warm air intruded into the area. The city was under a flood advisory because of the rain and melting snow, the weather service said. High winds were also forecast for the area.

Winter storm warnings were still posted for much of Oregon, with snow expected Wednesday.

The first storm moved into the area Monday and Tuesday. The second and stronger storm was forecast to hit Wednesday into Thursday.

"It's pretty big when you get back-to-back storms like that," weather service meteorologist Roger Cloutier said.

Winter storm warnings Wednesday touched portions of eight states, stretching into Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

Scattered areas near Easton, Washington, along Interstate 90 in the Cascade Mountains 55 miles east of Seattle, have already received 32 inches of snow, Cloutier said.

The snowfall extends south into Oregon, with as much as 18 inches forecast for the Bend area. CNN affiliate KTVZ in Bend said an earlier round of snow over the weekend gave a boost to local ski resorts but also created dangerous driving conditions that left at least one motorist dead.

Those conditions were expected to worsen.

"Expect extreme travel difficulties to develop on Wednesday," the weather service said, advising those who must take to the roads during the storm to carry a flashlight, blankets and extra food and water.

The Washington State Department of Transportation said 1,250 workers will use nearly 500 pieces of equipment statewide to treat and plow roadways.

Alaska Airlines said it is canceling 38 flights Wednesday because of the heavy snow expected to hit the area.

CNN affiliate KING reported that Seattle Public Schools opted to close all schools two hours early.

The heavy snowfall will be followed by rain in Seattle, which could produce accumulated water and urban flooding, Guy said.

"It's just gonna be a mess all around," he said of the coming few days in the Seattle area.

Cloutier said even though computer models are trending colder and colder for the coming days, the heavy snow will eventually pose a flooding threat.

"When the snow does finally melt, you can almost guarantee there will be some flooding somewhere," he said.

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Celebrating the Year of the Maya

London (CNN) -- The year 2012 is a significant one in the Maya calendar.

The ancient long count calendar of the Maya, a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished across Mexico and Central America from 2000 BC to the time of the Spanish Conquistadores, states that on the 12th December, 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in approximately 26,000 years.

And 21 December, 2012, is said to mark the end of the 13th Maya Calendar, a 144,000-day cycle or "b'ak'tun" since the mythical Maya day of creation 5,200 years ago.

Though popularly interpreted as signifying the "end of the world as we know it," scholars stress that the end of the "b'ak'tun" does not mean apocalypse.

While few Maya people still follow the long count calendar, the Global Heritage Fund is celebrating the event by naming 2012 "The Year of the Maya," with members of the Fund greeting the winter solstice on top of La Danta pyramid at the El Mirador site in Guatemala.

"Experiencing the Winter Solstice on the summit of La Danta is thought to be one of the greatest opportunities to experience the end of the 13th Maya calendar and dawn of a new age," said Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of the Global Heritage Fund.

But their celebrations have a serious side: the Global Heritage Fund is highlighting the dangers to Mayan sites such as El Mirador, which are threatened by looting and deforestation, and hoping to secure the investment to turn these neglected spots into thriving and sustainable tourist destinations.

"Tikal National Park (in Guatemala) has proven that major Maya archaeological sites are economically sustainable through visitation and with appropriate investment, can generate hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation and maintenance of both the cultural and natural heritage," said Morgan.

CNN's World's Treasures asked Morgan to compile a list of key Maya sites across LatinAmerica for Maya-enthusiasts keen to ring in the dawn of a new era sitting on the monumental steps of a temple or at the summit of an ancient pyramid.

Chichen Itza

The site of Chichen Itza is a key sacred spot in Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula -- the settlement is believed to date back to the 5th century AD.

Its architecture is a blend of Maya and Toltec styles. It was the Toltec -- warrior peoples from the Mexican plateau -- who imposed the practice of ritual sacrifice at the site.

Covering a huge surface area, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is rich in monuments, chief of which is the stepped pyramid temple of Kukulkan, as well as a Great Ball Court, where visitors can picture deadly ball games taking place.

Tulum

Though not extensive, this clifftop site in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is certainly picturesque, overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.

A photo-friendly beauty spot, Tulum is a relaxed pit-stop on the itinerary. A dip in the sea should revive any temple-weary travelers.

Palenque

Also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Palenque, in Chiapas, Mexico, is nestled deep in the jungle, the tops of its many temples often wreathed in mist.

The site boasts stepped pyramids, including the impressive Temple of Inscriptions, carved stone walls and even the burial site of Pakal the Great, Palenque's 7th-century ruler.

Tikal

Tikal is set in an ecological reserve in Guatemala -- its ruins are believed to date from as far back as 600 BC, and at one point the city was thought to be inhabited by 90, 000 people.

Temples, palaces, and public squares abound: If you want to go off the main tourist beat, you can explore the many ruins lying seemingly half-forgotten in the surrounding jungle.

Not just a historical treasure, the land on which Tikal rests is a natural beauty spot, home to numerous protected species of flora and fauna.

Copan

The Maya civilization spanned much of Central America and this site in Honduras is thought to have been inhabited as far back as 2000 BC.

Abandoned for centuries, it was rediscovered in 1570 by a Spanish explorer named Diego Garcia de Palacio.

The site is another maze of temples, plazas, altar complexes and ball courts, and of particular note is the Hieroglyphic Stairway Plaza, a monumental 100-meter-wide stairway bearing a long Mayan inscription composed of numerous glyphs.

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