WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER:  Are You Too Old to Shovel Snow?
Are You Too Old to Shovel Snow?
We may endure a blizzard of protest for this one, but:  Not everyone should be shoveling snow.

Dr. Barry Franklin plows right into it:  He cautions anyone who’s over the age of 45 against trying the winter chore.  This is because of what he calls the “perfect storm” of factors, which seem to combine, to cause heart attacks.

Dr. Luke Laffin, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, says he encourages people to start finding other ways to remove snow, once they turn 55.  The risk for injury of muscle, ligament or tendon, as well as bone or cartilage, is just the basic problem.

The cold temperatures plus intense exercise of shoveling equal no joke.  And for middle-aged adults, especially those who don’t get a lot of exercise, Franklin and Laffin agree – it’s best to leave the shoveling for someone else.

A study from 2010 estimated that nearly 200,000 people were treated in emergency rooms, for snow-shoveling-related incidents between 1990 and 2006, an average of about 11,500 people per year.

About 55-percent were soft-tissue injuries, while about 34-percent were lower-back injuries, but experts say shoveling snow can also be a trigger for heart attacks.

Dig out more, here:  (Yahoo)

 

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