Doctors warn of shoveling, cold injuries

The University of Cincinnati's Rani Nasser and Petra Warner spoke with Spectrum News about warning signs for back injuries and frostbite when shoveling snow.

They said taking breaks and being aware of red flags is key to not injuring yourself.

“When you have weakness or numbness or a pain traveling down your leg, these are things that you want to get an expert to check you out for,” said Nasser, MD, associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery in UC's College of Medicine and a UC Health physician. “As a spine surgeon, we see a lot of soft tissue injuries, meaning muscle injuries, as well as even some ligaments, sprains, strains, disk herniation in some circumstances, fractures, particularly in our population with osteoporosis, in our elderly."

Warner recommends dressing in layers and taking time to warm up so you don't get hurt.

“You’ll probably feel more a numbness, sometimes a tingling sensation, but most of all, you’re not aware of it because you start getting numb,” Warner, MD, adjunct associate professor in the College of Medicine and UC Health's burn director. Those are early signs of frostbite that can happen even when it’s not bitterly cold.

Read or watch the Spectrum story.

Featured photo at top of a person shoveling snow. Photo/Willowpix/iStock.