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Proceed with caution
A nice dusting of snow looks like a winter wonderland from afar. The problem is that light dusting of snow may turn into heavy snow you need to shovel—and it could be dangerous to do so. Shovelling snow accounts for 11,500 hospital admissions per year, seven percent of which are cardiac-related, according to a 2011 study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Cardiovascular injuries accounted for half of the hospitalizations and 100 percent of the fatalities over the 17-year span of data.
Keep in mind these important snow shovelling tips for your safety.
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Shovelling snow is strenuous
Shovelling snow is physically taxing even for those in good shape. For those at high risk for heart disease, shovelling snow can be especially dangerous because of the strain that it puts on the heart. “In the cold weather, your smaller arteries, particularly in your feet and arms, have a tendency to constrict, and it creates a lot of back pressure on the heart,” says Shoeb Sitafalwalla, MD, a cardiologist at the Advocate Heart Institute at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. “This, combined with the fact that you’re lifting or shovelling heavy amounts of snow, increases the heart rate and oxygen demand on the heart.” If you have a pre-existing heart condition, you risk taxing your heart to a level that it simply can’t handle, Dr. Sitafalwalla says. If you have coronary artery disease, heart failure, congestive heart failure, a weakened heart muscle, or tight or leaky valves that impede blood flow to the heart, it’s best to avoid shovelling snow altogether.
