I’ve always heard/been told to be careful while shoveling snow, that you’re more likely to have a heart attack. Why would I be more likely then as opposed to exerting myself during normal temperatures?
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Some people do not exercise whatsoever, and thus their hearts are quite weak. When these people suddenly physically exert themselves by shoveling snow, which is somewhat intensive, their hearts literally cannot handle it.
For people who exercise frequently, this is not an issue and you are not more likely to have a heart attack whole shoveling.
It’s not an issue unless you already have heart disease/are at high risk for heart attack.
It’s the combination of cold weather and unaccustomed strenuous exercise.
Cold causes blood vessels to constrict, increasing blood pressure.
Shoveling snow is pretty hard aerobic work, which increases your heart rate and blood pressure further.
Both of those increase the acute risk that a small clot or similar will break loose from somewhere and get lodged in one of the (already partially-occluded, because you have heart disease) blood vessels that supply the heart muscle, leading to myocardial infarction, aka “heart attack.”
Edit: and I want to clarify the “unaccustomed” piece, too. It’s extra strenuous for people who may be otherwise pretty sedentary – if your heart is already out of shape because it doesn’t get exercise, it has to work far harder than that of someone doing a similar task who *is* in some kind of shape.
I think also that for many people it’s a sudden change of activity to a high intensity, bursty workout alongside the environmental pressure of cold and heavy clothing 🤔
No, its not any more likely then other kinds of exertion in low temperatures. Its just that snow shoveling is essentially forced exercise – big snowstorms bring out people who do not exercise often and may not be in good shape.
Because it’s probably the most exercise you’ve gotten all year.
The cold dry air can also irritate your lungs and make it a bit harder to breathe which leads to an increased heart rate and a higher chance of dislodging a blood clot so it goes to your heart and causes a heart attack.
Full body workout that causes your heart rate to go up faster than expected. If you dont know what that feels like you end up with a BPM in the 180s or higher. Thats not sustainable, and can cause massive damage if you arent careful.
Cold is a vasoconstrictor, combine that with high intensity workout in shoveling snow and you’ve got a recipe for disaster
you wouldn’t be more likely to have one shovelling snow versus normal exercise on it’s own. The cold does contribute in many ways……. but you’re shovelling snow, not exercising. People don’t realize how physically taxing it can be and since they aren’t monitoring their exertion like they would be exercising it basically just creeps up on you.
It isn’t necessarily because of the snow or cold. It’s mostly because many people live sedentary lifestyles and snow shoveling is the only cardiovascular and strength workout that they do, and they can’t ease into it the way exercising would usually be recommended. So they overexert themselves and hurt their bodies.
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