Human vulnerability and variability in the cold: Establishing individual risks for cold weather injuries

Human tolerance to cold environments is extremely limited and responses between individuals is highly variable. Such physiological and morphological predispositions place them at high risk of developing cold weather injuries [CWI; including hypothermia and/or non-freezing (FCI) and freezing cold injuries (NFCI)]. The present manuscript...

Effectiveness of an indoor preparation program to increase thermal resilience in elderly for heat waves

Elderly indoors can be subject to considerable heat strain during heat waves. We investigated if a short indoor acclimation (HA) program leads to improved resilience to heat. Although full HA takes about ten days, the main changes occur in the first days, leading to reduced heat strain with similar stress. This study investigates changes after 3...

Optimising the acquisition and retention of heat acclimation

Heat acclimation (HA) often starts in a moderately hot environment to prevent thermal overload and stops immediately prior to athletic activities. The aims of this study were 1) to establish whether acclimation to a moderately hot climate is sufficient to provide full acclimation for extreme heat and 2) to investigate the physiological responses...

Temperature pill tracks rectal but not esophageal temperature during short high intensity exercise

Heat strain in elderly during heat waves in the Netherland

It is well documented that high ambient temperatures causes an increase in morbidity and mortality. Particularly elderly of over 75 years old are vulnerable for heat stress (Kovats and Hajat, 2008). Mackenbach et al. (1997) showed that an additional 10 elderly die every week in Dutch nursery homes when ambient temperatures are between 25 and 30...

Quantification of the decay and re-induction of heat acclimation in dry-heat following 12 and 26 days without exposure to heat stress

Compared with the induction of heat acclimation (HA), studies investigating the decay and re-induction of HA (RA) are relatively sparse and have yielded conflicting results. Therefore, 16 semi-nude men were acclimated to dry-heat by undertaking an exercise protocol in a hot chamber (dry-bulb temperature 46.1 ± 0.1°C; relative humidity 17.9 ± 0.1...