Heat tolerance and acclimatization to work in the heat in relation to age.

Heat Tolerance and Aging with Application to Industrial Jobs

“…A-shown in Figure 2, Wagner et al (1972) reported the . physiological responses of ten younger (20-29 yr) and seven older (46-67 yr) men to dry heat (49 0 C) before and after exercise-heat acclimation.…”

“…Evidence from this study indicated little impairment of the thermoregulatory system during exercise-heat stress at least through the fifth decade of life for these aerobically trained older men. These (Drinkwater and Horvath, 1979;Wagner et al, 1972).…”

“…Older men have been reported to have higher heart rates, mean skin and core temperatures, and lower sweat rates compared to younger men during exercise-heat stress both pre-and post-acclimation (Wagner et al, 1972). It has also been shown that older men start to sweat later and/or sweat less during exercise in the heat compared to younger men (Hellon and Lind, 1956).…”

“…These authors suggest that the older men displayed a more limited sensitivity and secretory capacity in their sweating -y Ccdes mechanism compared to the younger men which contributed to .,.ador their inferior temperature regulation. Several authors (Drinkwater and Horvath, 1979;Hellon and Lind, 1956;Lind et al, 1970;Wagner et al, 1972) have "suggested that the exercise-heat intolerance observed in older individuals was associated with a deficient sweating mechanism. For instance, Hellon and Lind (1956) compared the onset of sweating for ten younger (18-23 yr) and ten older (44-57 yr) men to passive heating, and reported that sweating onset took twice as long (delayed 15 min) for the older men.…”

Thermoregulatory Responses of the Elderly Population

“…For example, older subjects were reported to be less heat tolerant due to a sluggish sweating response associated with reduced sweat gland capacity (Hellon 8c Lind, 1956;Wagner et at., 1972;Collins et al,, 1978;and Shoenfeld et al,, 1978 (Dill & Consolazio, 1962: Robinson et al,, 1966; Drinkwater &Horvath, 1979 andDrinkwater et aL, 1982 (Robinson & Robinson, 1954 (Youseg 1980;Yousef & Davis, 1985;Davis & Youseg 1985). (Robinson, l938;Astrand, 1967;Dill et at,, l983 (Table 4).…”