Cardiovascular Regulation of the Elderly in Low Oxygenation Environments: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Hypobaric hypoxia originates from the exposure of predominantly aerobic organisms to environments with low availability of atmospheric oxygen, however, prolonged exposures to hypoxic environments without previous experience or preparation can generate an atypical and possibly harmful physiological response to organic systems, mainly in older audiences. Thus, this study aimed to describe the main adaptive effects on cardiovascular control in hypoxic environments in elderly people with cardiovascular dysfunction. To carry out this study, a bibliographic survey was made on the virtual database Medline by PubMed, the protocol used to search for the studies was done through the selection of previously defined keywords. For the analysis of the data, the method of full description of the results of the selected works was adopted. It can be concluded that exposure to hypoxic environments directly and negatively influenced the cardiovascular regulation and cardiac behavior of the elderly, in which this episode worsened in the presence of comorbidities.