Modulation of thermogenesis and metabolic health: a built environment perspective

Abstract

Lifestyle interventions, obviating the increasing prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, generally focus on nutrition and physical activity. Environmental factors are hardly covered. Because we spend on average more that 90% of our time indoors, it is, however, relevant to address these factors. In the built environment, the attention has been limited to the (assessment and optimization of) building performance and occupant thermal comfort for a long time. Only recently well-being and health of building occupants are also considered to some extent, but actual metabolic health aspects are not generally covered. In this review, we draw attention to the potential of the commonly neglected lifestyle factor 'indoor environment'. More specifically, we review current knowledge and the developments of new insights into the effects of ambient temperature, light and the interaction of the two on metabolic health. The literature shows that the effects of indoor environmental factors are important additional factors for a healthy lifestyle and have an impact on metabolic health.

Wearable Optical Sensing in the Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) for Pervasive Medicine: Opportunities and Challenges

“…Thermal comfort is identified as the state in which people are satisfied with the objective thermal environment both physically and psychologically. It was first proposed to optimize the energy management of buildings . Meanwhile, it has been found that the thermal comfort state of patients is related to many physiological parameters .…”

“…It was first proposed to optimize the energy management of buildings. 163 Meanwhile, it has been found that the thermal comfort state of patients is related to many physiological parameters. 164 More than 33% of patients were dissatisfied with their thermal comfort in a study of America medical centers, which can potentially lead to pathophysiologic sequelae.…”

Targeting lifestyle energy expenditure in the management of obesity and health: from biology to built environment

“…This is emphasized by van Marken Lichtenbelt et al . in their analysis of how metabolic health could benefit from the impact of novel environmental lifestyle factors in the built environment such as ambient temperature and light exposure. They review the effect of day‐to‐day life ambient temperature and light exposure on thermophysiology and substrate metabolism, and they discuss the modulation of thermogenesis and metabolic health from a built (indoor) environment perspective.…”

Interindividual variability of human thermoregulation: Toward personalized ergonomics of the indoor thermal environment

“…Moreover, daily fluctuations in individuals' metabolic rate due to feeding status, circadian rhythms, and seasonal changes have barely been considered in the ergonomics of the built environment (7)(8)(9). Thus, setting indoor thermal environments based on an individual's metabolism could not only increase the satisfaction rate by proper consideration of the dynamics of individual thermoneutral zones but also allow relaxation (e.g., drift beyond thermoneutrality) of the environment to improve health-related parameters of occupants, as highlighted by Pallubinsky et al, van Marken Lichtenbelt et al, and Brychta et al (10)(11)(12), while reducing the energy required for thermal conditioning of buildings. This study was undertaken to show that interindividual differences in energy expenditure (thereby heat production) exist under normal office/living conditions and that these will need to be considered to devise better personalized temperature control systems.…”