WATER AND ELECTROLYTE ECONOMY OF DESERT ABORIGINALS (PINTUBI) DURING SUMMER.
Abstract
Pintubi Aboriginals after three years in a settlement, returned to the central desert of Australia and were studied there during summer. They were less lean than the nomadic Nadadjara studied earlier. They had higher blood pressures, and higher sodium status than unacculturated groups. The Pintubi drank water more rapidly and turned over water at an average rate of 95 m1/kg/24 hr, lactating females at 124 m1/kg/24 hr, compared with the European male average of 54 m1/kg/24 hr. The arm bag sweating rate of Pintubi was 3 times that of Nadadjara, and half that of Europeaus, while the sodium content of arm sweat was twice that of Nadadjaras and half that of Europeans. Whole body sweating was the reverse of this. Thus the nomad-type high water intake and sweat rates of the Pintubi were associated with less suppression of arm bag sweat and higher sodium output in sweat, approaching European levels. Renal water output was twice as great as in Europeans in the desert, but heat and exercise reduced the Pintubi water excretion, and caused a small decrement in sodium excretion rate, compared with a large reduction in sodium excretion in the Europeans. The Pintubi represent a transition phase in water and electrolyte handling between nomadic Nadajaras and Europeans. These changes in Pintubi were induced in the course of three years exposure to a desert settlement. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 10, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0706966
Entities
People
- W. V. Macfarlane
Organizations
- University of Adelaide