Women at Altitude: Voluntary Muscle Exercise Performance with and Without a-Adrenergic Receptor Blockage
Abstract
It is not clear if women, like men, have impaired muscle endurance performance during initial altitude exposure or if increased sympathetic activation is essential to mediate the many physiological responses and adjustments that characterize longer altitude exposures. To study these issues, 14 healthy women (22+2 yr) were randomly assigned to receive either 2 mg prazosin (n=7) or placebo (n=7) t.i.d. (double-blind design) for 12d at sea level (SL) and during the first 12d of HA residence (4300 m). Moreover, no statistically significant differences were detected between groups for any measure on any test day. These findings indicate that: 1. small muscle endurance exercise performance of women, unlike that of men, is not impaired during initial altitude exposure, and 2. pharmacological blocking of 1-adrenergic receptors during altitude acclimatization does not result in a meaningful change in either muscle exercise performance or in cardiopulmonary function during isolated muscle exercise.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA360458
Entities
People
- A. Matthews
- C. S. Fulco
- K. W. Kambis
- P. B. Rock
- S. R. Muza
Organizations
- United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine