Snow shoveling: A trigger for acute myoccardial infarction and sudden coronary death

Increased cardiac death due to shoveling of heavy snow has been reported both in the lay and medical press. We obtained cardiorespiratory measurements of 10 healthy, sedentary men during snow shoveling and maximal treadmill testing, and our results and those of other investigators suggest that the combination of vigorous physical exertion plus a diseased or susceptible heart, rather than the exertion itself, constitutes the major cardiovascular risk of snow shoveling.