Please be careful if you are not used to shoveling snow.

They have a saying in Alaska ... old fat men don't shovel snow.

But it doesn't really apply just to old fat men.

quote:

---

A study looking at data from 1990 to 2006 by researchers at the US Nationwide Children's Hospital recorded 1,647 fatalities from cardiac-related injuries associated with shovelling snow. In Canada, these deaths make the news every winter.
Cardiologist Barry Franklin, an expert in the hazardous effects of snow removal, believes the number of deaths could be double that. "I believe we lose hundreds of people each year because of this activity," says Franklin, director of preventative cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at William Beaumont Hospital, Michigan.
His team found that when healthy young men shovelled snow, their heart rate and blood pressure increased more than when they exercised on a treadmill. "Combine this with cold air, which causes arteries to constrict and decrease blood supply, you have a perfect storm for a heart attack," he says.

Snow shovelling is particularly strenuous because it uses arm work, which is more taxing than leg work. Straining to move wet and heavy snow is particularly likely to cause a surge in heart rate and blood pressure, Franklin says.
Many people hold their breath during the hard work, which also puts a strain on the body. In addition, the prime time for snow clearance is between 6am and 10am which is when circadian fluctuations make us more vulnerable to heart attacks.
Franklin considers snow shovelling to be so dangerous that he advises anyone over the age of 55 not to do it.

"People at greatest risk are those who are habitually sedentary with known or suspected coronary disease, who go out once a year to clear snow," he says, adding that smoking and being overweight drastically increase the risk. If you must do it, push rather than lift the snow, dress in layers, take regular breaks indoors and don't eat or smoke before shovelling, he advises.
Using a snow blower is a better option, but there have also been heart attacks recorded in men using blowers, including one fatality in Buffalo on Wednesday. "People don't have any idea how taxing it is on the heart," Franklin says.

---

quote:

---

The latest wave of snowstorms that struck snow-novice areas of Maryland and Washington D.C. has people worried about dangerous roads and highways.

But doctors also remind us of another snow-related danger: shoveling.

Studies made of the period after large snowstorms have repeatedly shown that shoveling puts people at risk for heart attacks -- even in cities experienced with snowstorms.

One storm that hit the Detroit area resulted in 36 people struck with sudden cardiac death while shoveling, according to an article published in the American Journal of Cardiology published in 2003.

Rowena Young, 78, was stunned when it happened to her husband in after a snowstorm December 2009.
"He was protecting me because he didn't want me to do it, because I had had open heart surgery and I wasn't allowed to shovel," said Young.

Otis Young, a popular local minister, who was 78, used a snow blower to clear the driveway of their Lincoln, Neb., home. But then the snowplow came down the street and left a ridge of snow at the end of their driveway that was too big for the blower and too high to drive over, so he grabbed a shovel.

"I wasn't really watching him, and it was very cold that morning. He was trying to chop the snow up so he could get out," said Young. "He came in, I thought he was fine. He hung up his shovel and his coat."

But then she heard a thump.

Young called 911, but there was nothing the first responders could do.

Doctors say they see an increase in all heart troubles following a blizzard, not just heart attacks.

Dr. Patrick McBride, professor of medicine and director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in Madison, said his colleagues worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention to study rates of heart problems following major snowstorms.

"They found that heart attack rates go up 20 percent in the week following storms like this," said McBride.

Experts Explain Why Snow Shoveling is Deceivingly Dangerous

"I lost two friends to this activity," said Barry Franklin, director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. "It's a dangerous activity. People who are middle aged or older with a history of heart problems simply should not shovel snow."

Franklin thought many people may not realize that a shovel full of wet snow can weigh as much as 15 to 16 pounds. So he said that if someone is shoveling snow at a rate of 12 shovelfuls per minute, they will have moved nearly a ton of snow if shoveling their driveway in just 10 minutes.

"So the physical demands are really, really substantial," said Franklin.

In the past, Franklin has studied the heart rates and blood pressure of men in good physical shape who were shoveling snow. What he and his colleagues found was that the heart rates achieved by these men equaled or exceeded the heart rate that they achieved through maximal exercise testing.

"When you couple that with the cold air that they are breathing, which causes the coronary arteries to constrict, in many respects you've got a perfect storm for heart trouble," said Franklin.

"Being out in the cold, some of the warning signs may be camouflaged," he added.

Typical warning signs include pain and pressure from the navel upwards, dizziness, lightheadedness and heart palpitations.

Cold weather and hard work can mask those symptoms, delaying people's responses and sometimes leading them into more trouble.

"People can be quite short of breath and think it is just from the exertion of what they're doing. Some people could neglect to notice the arm pain [of a heart attack]," said McBride.

"We really encourage people beyond the age of 50 to try to hire a neighborhood kid to do it," he added.

Not everyone is at risk for a heart attack while shoveling, of course and people in cold climates often have "conditioning," according to Dr. Randal Thomas, director of the Mayo Cardiovascular Health Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

But Thomas worried about people in the areas hardest hit now -- areas that usually shut down after a few inches of snow.

"Snow shoveling is probably not a good first-time exercise for people who are sedentary or overweight," said Thomas, who recommended people take breaks while shoveling and try to push the snow as far as possible before lifting it.

"If they develop acute symptoms while shoveling, they should stop shoveling first and sit down and rest inside," said Thomas. "If they continue to have chest tightness or severe shortness of breath after five minutes, they should go ahead and call 911."

---

This happens quite bit.

quote:

---

The powder stuff, you could do it with a broom.

---

You are not doing anything with a broom when you have a foot or two of fresh powder

FWIW, seems the wet heavy snow is the most dangerous for heart issues. Broom works best on powder when it is a few inches deep at best.

Push snow instead of lifting it when possible. Get very warm before going out to clear the walk or driveway. Take breaks.

We got 8" this week and I managed to push it off the walks. Last year we had 1.5' in one 24 hour period. I hired some guys to clear the drive and walks then.

quote:

---

Unreal that the man was only 44 years old. Wonder if he had a condition that contributed to his heart attack.

---

Heart attacks in the late 30s/40s is pretty common this days. Usually it's in people who are obese, smokers, hypertensives, diabetics, etc. I've seen some people with no risk factors though have heart attacks very young, some people just have shitty genetics.

Last year we had a 31 year old patient come into the ER with chest pain. No family history, no risk factors, fit, ran every day, etc. We almost didn't cath him but he did show mild elevation in his cardiac enzymes so we did. They do the angiogram and I'll be damned if he didn't have a 100 percent blockage of one of his coronary arteries.

Cold weather causes vasoconstriction and increased blood pressure, hard work causes increase in heart rate and oxygen requirement of the heart as well as further increases in blood pressure, shivering causes increase in whole body oxygen consumption by over 200% which decreases the amount of oxygen in the blood. These are among the numerous physiologic changes that occur when shoveling snow. Seems like the perfect series of events to expose a condition such as coronary artery disease that may have not been otherwise evident. People have a physiologic reserve that allows them to get through stresses to the body. However, strenuous activity in cold weather pushes people beyond their reserve and organ damage can occur.

This is actually pretty common. Being cold places stress on your circulatory system and constricts blood flow to your limbs etc. When exercising like shoveling snow, it causes your heart to do extra work to pump blood to those muscles. That can cause a heart attack in those not used to strenuous activity.