Twenty healthy male volunteers, dressed in shorts, stayed for 30 min in a room with an ambient temperature of 28 degrees C followed by a stay in a room with a temperature of 10 degrees C for 120 min. The mean skin temperature fell rapidly during the first minutes in the cold but the rectal temperature began to fall as late as at 60 min (0.1 degree C) and was 0.4 degrees C lower at the end of the cold exposure than before it. The metabolic rate, and the systolic and diastolic blood pressures, increased, and the pulse rate fell, in the cold. Serum samples were taken before moving to the cold (10 degrees C) room and after the 2-h stay and assayed for 11 hormones. There were no significant changes in the serum concentration of adrenalin, T3, T4, testosterone, TSH or LH. The serum level of noradrenaline increased from 4.5 to 6.3 nmol l-1 (P less than 0.01) and those of cortisol, GH and prolactin fell by 20, 87 and 48% (all P less than 0.01). The total serum proteins increased by 11% and free fatty acids by 28% (P less than 0.01). Our results show that the short-term exposure of adult man to low ambient temperature does not have any effect on the pituitary-thyroid and pituitary-testis axes and adrenal medulla. The increase of noradrenaline is probably due to general activation of the sympathetic nerves at low temperatures. The decreases in the serum levels of GH and prolactin reflect a true decrease in their secretions and may be mediated by inhibitory hypothalamic mechanisms.

We studied habituation processes by exposing six healthy men to cold air (2 h in a 10 degrees C room) daily for 11 days. During the repeated cold exposures, the general cold sensations and those of hand and foot became habituated so that they were already significantly less intense after the first exposure and remained habituated to the end of the experiment. The decreases in skin temperatures and increases in systolic blood pressure became habituated after four to six exposures, but their habituations occurred only at a few time points during the 120-min cold exposure and vanished by the end of the exposures. Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone, total thyroxine and triiodothyronine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, cortisol, and total proteins were measured before and after the 120-min cold exposure on days 0, 5, and 10. The increase in norepinephrine response became reduced on days 5 and 10 and that of proteins on day 10, suggesting that the sympathetic nervous system became habituated and hemoconcentration became attenuated. Thus repeated cold-air exposures lead to habituations of cold sensation and norepinephrine response and to attenuation of hemoconcentration, which provide certain benefits to those humans who have to stay and work in cold environments.

This review presents hormonal responses to various cold exposures and their calorigenic effects in man and some animals. Previous studies in rats have shown that cold exposures activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. Increased thyroid hormone concentrations lead to heat production via general stimulation of metabolism (obligatory thermogenesis) and possibly via activation of thyroid hormone receptors and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP 1) and deiodinase enzyme genes in the brown adipose tissue (BAT). In human subjects long-term cold exposures do not seem to activate the pituitary-thyroid axis, but rather accelerate the elimination of triiodothyronine (T3), leading to low serum concentrations of free T3 hormone. In corollary to this a hypothyreotic condition with increased serum thyroid-stimulating hormone and impaired mood and cognitive performance can be observed after long-term cold exposures such as wintering. During cold exposures the sympathetic nerve system is activated and noradrenaline is released to blood circulation and to BAT, where it leads to production of cAMP, lipolysis and free fatty acids. Free fatty acids open the mitochondrial proton channel protein in BAT. Protons enter the mitochondria and inhibit ATP synthesis (uncoupling). By this way energy is transformed into heat (facultatory or adaptive thermogenesis). In adult human subjects the amount of BAT is small and adaptive thermogenesis (non-shivering thermogenesis) has a smaller role. UCP 1 with other uncoupling proteins may have other functions in the control of body weight, sugar balance and formation of reactive oxygen species.

Blood pressure and heart rate responses in men exposed to arm and leg cold pressor tests and whole-body cold exposure ABSTRACTObjectives. Comparison of the effects of different types of cold exposure on blood pressure and heart rate. Study design. Controlled laboratory study. Methods. Twenty healthy men were exposed to three different types of cold exposure: cold pressor tests for hands and feet, and a 2-h cold air exposure at an ambient temperature of +10 °C. Results. All types of cold exposure caused a rise in systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Heart rate increased in the foot cold pressor test. In the cold chamber test, heart rate fell, causing a decrease in the rate:pressure product. No statistically significant correlations were found between the blood pressure responses to cold pressor and cold chamber tests. The increased rate:pressure product observed in the cold pressor tests is indicative of an increased oxygen consumption in the heart muscle. Conclusions. The measured cardiovascular responses indicate that a sudden local exposure to severe cold would be more stressful than a long lasting, milder exposure to cold, even when the latter is applied to the whole body (Int J Circumpolar Health 2006;65(2):178-184.).

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