Shoveling snow can be dangerous. Here's how to protect yourself

This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Marielle Sigatra. Hey, it's Marielle. In many states across the country, people are still digging out of last week's winter storm. And it turns out there is another storm coming this weekend. More snow on the ground means more snow to shovel. So we're bringing you some tips about how to stay safe while you're shoveling snow. You'll hear from Morning Edition host Steve Inskiep after the break. This past weekend's winter storms sent a lot of people outside with shovels or ice scrapers. Here in Washington, DC, wet snow turned to sleet. National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Mocelli says sleet and the resulting ice weigh a lot more. When there are greater amounts of water in the snow, you get that dense, heavy wet snow that's harder to shovel and is a health risk. Yeah, this matters when you're trying to move all that stuff. Dr. John Osborne is a cardiologist and volunteer expert with the American Heart Association and he is offering some health advice. This story is close to my heart because I've been out shoveling. So what should I think about when I go out to shovel, especially really heavy snow? Yeah, it's amazing how much physical exertion shoveling snow takes. If we're shoveling snow for just 10 minutes, in most people we'll reach about 97% of our maximal predicted heart rate. And if you have a prior history of heart disease, if you have diabetes, if you've had stents, balloons, bypass surgery, any of those things, I think everybody should be very cautious if you have a prior history of that. We'll also throw in high blood pressure as well. So it is a major stress test when you go out there and shovel snow. I'm thinking about the reasons why and one of them is just the weight, right? This can be hundreds and hundreds of pounds of snow if you shovel a large area. Absolutely, so a huge amount of weight and depending on the snow, the fluffy stuff versus the wet stuff. And a lot of that work is being done with our upper arms, right? That's not where most of our muscles are, it's the lower extremities. So we're really testing our upper extremities strength dramatically. And so if you're older, if you're above 65, some people say even above 45, be cautious and please ask for help. And does the cold multiply the danger? Absolutely, so first of all, if you're deconditioned, you're not doing this kind of work on a regular basis and you go out, it's cold, you get vasoconstricted, right? And on top of that, then when you start shoveling all that snow, it drives up the heart rate, it drives up the blood pressure. All of those factors put a major stress or load on the heart. And if you're not ready for it, it could be cardiovascularly disastrous. I'm thinking of a couple of things that I did in the last day or two and you can tell me if they were the right or the wrong thing. Every once in a while, I would just stop and stand there for a minute and catch my breath. Was that a good thing to do? Absolutely, thumbs way up. So take it easy, go slow, we don't have to take care of the entire driveway in one fell swoop. I also realized compared to past years that I can dress more lightly and just sweat less because my body produces a lot of heat. Was that helpful? Sure, I would say dress appropriate to the weather and layer and if you get hot, you can begin to take off those layers. So absolutely. Okay, I wanna ask about another thing that may stress people, which I know that you guys have warned about. I went out to the park with one of my daughters who wanted to do some sledding, which meant we were going up and down steep hills in really thick snow that did not hold our weight. Is that hazardous? Absolutely, again, you're out there burning off, I mean, good news is you're burning off a lot of calories, that's great, but again, if your body's not ready for that, not prepped for that, if you're not conditioned for that, it can be a lot of stress added to the heart. Dr. John Osborn, pleasure to talk with you, thank you so much. My pleasure, such an honor, Steve. If you're anticipating more wintry weather this weekend, or if you just wanna stay ahead of any more storms coming your way, check out our episode on how to keep your house safe during a winter weather disaster. We'll link to it in our show notes. This episode of LifeKit was produced by Mika Ellison. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan, and our digital editor is Malika Gareeb. Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle, Claire Marie Schneider, Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Zo Vingenhoven. I'm Maryl Cigarra, thanks for listening.