Human temperature regulation under heat stress in health, disease, and injury
Abstract
The human body constantly exchanges heat with the environment. Temperature regulation is a homeostatic feedback control system that ensures deep body temperature is maintained within narrow limits despite wide variations in environmental conditions and activity-related elevations in metabolic heat production. Extensive research has been performed to study the physiological regulation of deep body temperature. This review focuses on healthy and disordered human temperature regulation during heat stress. Central to this discussion is the notion that various morphological features, intrinsic factors, diseases, and injuries independently and interactively influence deep body temperature during exercise and/or exposure to hot ambient temperatures. The first sections review fundamental aspects of the human heat stress response, including the biophysical principles governing heat balance and the autonomic control of heat loss thermoeffectors. Next, we discuss the effects of different intrinsic factors (morphology, heat adaptation, biological sex, and age), diseases (neurological, cardiovascular, metabolic, and genetic), and injuries (spinal cord injury, deep burns, and heat stroke), with emphasis on the mechanisms by which these factors enhance or disturb the regulation of deep body temperature during heat stress. We conclude with key unanswered questions in this field of research.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1152/physrev.00047.2021
Entities
People
- Craig G Crandall
- Daniel Gagnon
- Matthew N Cramer
- Orlando Laitano
Organizations
- DRDC Toronto
- Fonds de Recherche du Québec Santé
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences
- National Institute on Aging
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- United States Army
- University of Florida
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Université de Montréal