Let’s Watch Our Hearts Folks…3 Health Tips For Snow Shoveling

[caption id="attachment_9757" align="alignleft" width="342"] Follow These 3 Health Tips When You're Snow Shoveling[/caption]

Snow shoveling can be a dangerous house chore for senior citizens and people with heart problems. Follow these three health tips when you're snow shoveling. Remember, Reilly Painting will be doing roof ice removal this week and next. Give us a call so we can add you to our schedule.

Wrap a scarf over your mouth. When the thermostat dips below 32 degrees, use a thick scarf to warm and humidify your inhalations. Ice-cold air constricts your lungs, which makes you short of breath and puts stress on the heart. Plus, chilly air can directly trigger spasms in the coronary arteries, which encourage plaque to break apart, Stevens says.

Haul small loads. “Try to avoid pushing or pulling something so heavy that it makes you hold your breath,” Stevens says. “When you bear down to make a movement, you place unnecessary resistance on your heart.” Holding your breath forces your heart to work harder to pump blood to your flexing muscles.

Lift with your legs. “Most people forget to use good body mechanics, and then their back goes out,” Stevens notes. That’s bad enough, of course, but there’s also a link to heart issues. That influx of pain triggers a surge of adrenaline in the body; adrenaline receptors on the heart respond by ramping up heart rate and blood pressure, upping the odds that some pesky plaque will rupture inside an artery.

Courtesy of Men's Health