A Preliminary Study of the Effect of Dousing and Foot Immersion on Cardiovascular and Thermal Responses to Extreme Heat

Abstract

Discussion | Relative to healthy counterparts, physically active middle-aged and older men with well-controlled type 2 diabetes had attenuated heat-loss capacity during exercise in the heat, due primarily to impaired sweat evaporation, which exacerbated thermal (body temperature) and cardiovascular (heart rate) strain. These preliminary findings indicate that exercise heat stress may pose a health concern in patients with type 2 diabetes, especially because physical activity is recommended for diabetes management. 5 However, participants with type 2 diabetes demonstrated a greater improvement in heatloss capacity than did healthy controls after heat acclimation. A randomized clinical trial of repeated brief, supervised exercise is warranted to determine whether heat acclimation during heat exposure offsets diabetes-related thermoregulatory impairments and health complications. Study limitations include the small sample size, the inclusion of only men and patients with well-controlled diabetes, and the specific exercise and environmental conditions.

Electric fans: A potential stay-at-home cooling strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic this summer?

“…A growing body of scientific evidence strongly supports the efficacy of several low-resource home-based cooling solutions. For example, skin-wetting has been shown to reduce physiological heat strain, dehydration, and thermal discomfort at temperatures up to 47 °C, irrespective of humidity ( Morris et al, 2019a ). Electric fans are another low-cost, low-energy demand (i.e.…”

“…anticholinergics) ( Cheshire and Fealey, 2008 ), effectively reducing the range of conditions under which a fan is beneficial ( Gagnon et al, 2016 ). However, any potential decrements in sweating can be compensated by externally applying water directly to the skin with a spray bottle ( Morris et al, 2019a ). Therefore, our aim was assess the potential utility of electric fan-use with light water-spraying as a stay-at-home cooling solution across the United States this summer, by comparing the biophysically modelled humidity-dependent temperature limits for this strategy to peak historical summer weather conditions.…”

Sustainable solutions to mitigate occupational heat strain – an umbrella review of physiological effects and global health perspectives

“…Moreover, the colder the water used for submersion, the faster the rates of cooling will be, necessitating less break time to recover [131]; however cooling the water to greater extents, especially in hot environments, necessitates greater equipment and electrical consumption for cooling. To address these feasibility and cost issues, adequate rest stations can be established where multiple workers are able to cool concurrently, and based on the strength of the cooling effect and that meaningful cooling occurs at as little as 20-22°C water temperature [131,132], this may be the optimal method for delivering as much cooling as possible during short periods of time.…”

“…In such scenarios, however, skin wetting has the added benefit of being able to use water that may not be of a sufficient quality to drink. This aspect of skin wetting may be particularly beneficial as skin wetting has been shown to reduce natural sweat rate without incurring elevated core temperatures or heart rate [132], thereby providing a method of slowing the dehydration process when drinking water is limited. One drawback to this method is that its use is not always feasible, especially indoors and/or when large amounts of personal protective equipment are worn.…”

Heat risk exacerbation potential for neurology patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and related isolation

“…Then, when a greater thermal challenge is identified by the net heat transfer capacity between human and environment, the patient would be contacted by their health service (Notley et al 2018 ), and upon the discretion of the telemedicine physicians, countermeasures could be proposed to immediately lower body temperature. For example, in the absence of air conditioning, electric fan use under defined conditions and self-application of water to the skin surface have been shown to effectively lower cardiovascular strain, thermal discomfort, and sweating in healthy individuals exposed to extreme heat stress (Morris et al 2019 ). Indeed, there are many viable cooling strategies available for individuals who present with altered thermoregulatory capacity.…”