Doctors Remind to Shovel Smart to Avoid Heart Problems

People with heart and weight problems and the elderly advised to shovel light.

DULUTH, Minn.- When shoveling all this snow off driveways, streets and cars in a hurry, it can be hard to remember to take it easy for your health.

According to Cardiologists with Essentia Health, people should be careful not to lift enormous amounts of snow when shoveling to avoid a possible heart attack.

That goes double, they said, for the elderly, those overweight, and those with heart conditions.

“What I’d say is for a lot of people this is more physical activity than they typically do all year long,” said Nicole Worden, Interventional Cardiologist with Essentia. “So you have people who are sometimes elderly, overweight, in bad shape outside.”

“I tell them to take smaller amounts of snow in their shovel maybe just push it rather than take these big heaping piles.”

Worden asked to help people you know have heart conditions with shoveling, so they may avoid injury.