Shoveling the walkway outside her Cleveland Heights building was not how Marlene Goldheimer planned to spend her Thursday, but she wanted to make sure her roommate, who was headed home from the airport, was able to get into the building safely.
“Supposedly the snow plow people were supposed to come, but they didn’t, so guess what? I’m getting exercise,” Goldheimer said.
But doctors like University Hospitals’ cardiologist Guilherme Oliveira said shoveling in the cold can increase blood pressure and reduce oxygen flow to the heart.
“Every year ERs everywhere are filled during the winter with people having heartaches from shoveling snow,” Dr. Oliveira said.
According to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, more than 11,000 people are hospitalized each year from shoveling snow. Those problems include exertion, lower back soft tissue injuries and heart attacks. Men make up about 67 percent of those injured and about 22 percent happen to people over 55-years-old. Each year, the study said, about 100 Americans die.
source: News5.com
