siouxcityjournal.com Sunday, december 9, 2018 | F5

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HEALTH

Shovel snow safelyTake heed of these tips before tackling your driveway this winterWINA STURGEON | Tribune NewService

If you live in a state that has a cold winter, it’s likely you’ll have more than one chance to remove snow from your driveway or walkway. Meanwhile, ev-ery year there is a news item about someone who had a heart attack while shoveling snow.

Back in 2016, the Harvard Health Blog published an article by Patrick J. Skerrett in which he states, “Snow shoveling is a known trigger for heart attacks. Emer-gency rooms in the snowbelt gear up for extra cases when enough of the white stuff has fallen to force folks out of their homes armed with shovels or snow blowers.”

Skerrett’s article explains this happens mostly to sedentary people who, because they are out of shape, can’t safely shovel snow without putting a “big strain on the heart.”

But even active athletes may be at risk, because there’s an additional and very important connection between shoveling snow and having a heart attack. Few folks are aware of that interaction, because most don’t know what happens inside their body when they are outside in cold weather.

Here’s the science: cold weather makes your blood vessels contract, making them narrower. That re-stricts blood flow, which in turn lowers the amount of

oxygen your heart receives. In order to get the extra oxygen the heart requires when doing something strenuous, it must pump harder to get blood flowing faster while you shovel snow.

That makes your heart rate increase, just as your heart beats faster when run-ning a sprint or pedaling a bike at full speed up a steep hill.

So not only does your heart work harder, but your blood pressure goes up as well.

Tips to prevent a heart attack when shoveling snow � First, drink a large glass of water before you start. you may not feel yourself sweating in cold weather, but the fact is that strenuous work will always make you sweat, no matter what the temperature is outside, and you don’t want to be dehydrated while doing hard, physical work.

� also remember that the job of clearing snow involves a lot of twisting. Warm up the muscles used in that motion (obliques and spinal erectors) before you go out and try making that move with the additional weight of a shovel full of snow.

� When you leave your warm home to go outside in what may be frigid temperatures, your body warmth will last for a while. Once your body begins to adjust to the outdoor temperature, that’s when your blood vessels will react. a good way to keep your interior warm is the “five-minute span.” Shovel snow for five minutes, then go inside for five minutes, or even longer if your feet or fingers began to feel cold outside. Skerrett also suggests “Shovel many light loads instead of fewer heavy ones.” That should help keep your heart from work-ing too hard.

� remember that cotton, once it gets wet, will draw off heat from your body, so don’t wear a pair of cotton sweats in the snow. In fact, whether or not you actually ski, go to an inexpensive second-hand shop and pick up a pair of roomy ski pants, which will keep your legs and ankles warm. and if you have no one to welcome you back inside with a cup of hot chocolate, make one for yourself before you go outside, and warm it up once you’re done.

Snow shoveling injuries by the numbersa national Institute of Health study published in 2011 takes a look at how many snow-shovel emergencies are treated in emergency rooms in the united States each year.

Type of medical emergency

4.15 per 100,000The average annual rate of snow shovel-related emergencies.

Who gets injured?

67.5%male

62.9%ages 19-54

15.3%18 and under

21.8%55+

32.5%Female

men account for about two-thirds of snow shovel-related emergencies.

musculoskeletal exertion 53.9%Slips and falls 20%Struck by snow shovel 15%cardiac issues 6.7%

cardiac-related emergency room visits accounted for all the deaths in the study.

LIVING

VERENA DOBNIKAssociated Press

NEW YORK — It took just days for the brightly colored Mandarin duck that appeared suddenly in a Central Park pond to turn both New Yorkers and visitors into a new gag-gle: the quackarazzi.

A horde of photographers has been gathering daily in the park off Fifth Avenue for well over a month, hoping to catch a glimpse of the ex-otic bird with pink, purple, orange and emerald green plumage and markings that admirer Joe Amato compares to “a living box of cray-ons.”

“So many people are drawn to this bird because its vibrant, vivid colors are associated with sun-sets and rainbows,” says Amato, who comes almost daily from his Queens home with his expensive camera equipment in tow.

Bird lovers and sightseers have dutifully documented the bird’s every move through social me-dia postings and videos that have noted its gentle glides across the water, its sniping at the ordinary mallards and even a vacation, of sorts, to a lake in nearby New Jersey.

This week, New York’s latest ris-ing star didn’t disappoint — with the feathery showboat preening its wings in the shadow of the historic Plaza Hotel as people on shore jos-tled for a better look.

Leesa Beckmann commuted two and a half hours from her home in Vernon Township, New Jersey, to see the duck that her 90-year-old mother has been talking about since its arrival.

“I’ve got to see this magnifi-cent duck,” Beckmann said to her mother. She plans to shoot and frame photos for her mother to

hang on the wall.Ornithologist Paul Sweet, how-

ever, who heads a vast collection of bird specimens at the New York-based American Museum of Nat-ural History, isn’t as throttled as others are about the duck.

Sweet says there’s nothing spe-cial about a Mandarin duck in Cen-tral Park. Not only is there another one (albeit captive) a short walk away at the Central Park Zoo, but such ducks are often imported from Asia for use on private property. From time to time, they escape into the wild.

“This bird is clearly not a va-grant,” said Sweet, adding that there are no records of actual wild Mandarin ducks in North America. If that actually happened in New York, of all places, “birders would be very excited.” For now, he says, they’re not.

Mandarin duck holds NYC in its spell

SETH WENIG, ASSOCIATED PRESS

a mandarin duck, right, swims Wednesday in new york’s central Park. In the weeks since it appeared in central Park, the duck has become a celebrity.

Happy 1stBirthday Tymberli!

I can’t believe my sweet granddaughter is already 1!I love you so much!

- Papa

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A big THANK YOU TO All THOsewHO ATTeNded THe OpeN HOUsefOr mY birTHdAY ANd fOr All OfTHe cArds ANd gifTs i received.A speciAl THANKs TO mY fAmilYfOr dOiNg THis fOr me ANd Kim

fOr All Of Her Help.iT wAswONderfUl.THANKs AgAiN!cec KArHOff