Summary
Older individuals, regardless of how one classifies ‘old’, are the most rapidly growing portion of the population. Statistics from heat waves and other morbidity-mortality data strongly suggest that older persons are at greater risk of developing life-threatening manifestations of heat stress such as heat stroke. Most laboratory studies have found that ageing is associated with decreased heat tolerance and alterations in thermoregulatory effector responses. What is not so clear is the role of ageing per se in this decreased heat tolerance (as opposed to some concomitant functional decline, e.g. decreasing V̇O2max, which accompanies ageing across a population). Studies have shown decrements in resting heat tolerance and responses to thermal transients in older adults. With exercise in warm environments, most research has focused on the sweating response and it appears that whether or not sweating rate declines in the elderly is dependent upon the environment studied. In hot dry environments, older persons (of both sexes) consistently secrete sweat at a lower rate than their younger counterparts. However, as humidity of the environment increases, this difference tends to disappear. A key issue which deserves further attention is that of hydration in the elderly, both in terms of body water content and compartmentalisation, and of skin water content. Finally, ageing is often accompanied by other conditions (e.g. hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular insufficiencies, long term therapeutic drug modalities) which further affect heat tolerance and thermoregulation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander JK. Obesity and cardiac performance. American Journal of Cardiology 14: 860–865, 1964
Anderson RK, Kenney WL. The effect of age on heat-activated sweat gland density and flow during exercise in dry heat. Journal of Applied Physiology, in press, 1987
Astrand I. Aerobic work capacity in men and women with special references to age. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica 49 (Suppl.): 169, 1960
Austin MG, Berry JW. Observation on 100 cases of heat stroke. Journal of the American Medical Association 161: 1525–1529, 1956
Bar-Or O, Lundegren H, Buskirk ER. Heat tolerance of exercising obese and lean women. Journal of Applied Physiology 26: 403–409, 1969
Buskirk ER. Physiological effects of heat and cold. In Wilson (Ed.) Obesity, pp. 119–139, F.A. Davis Co, Philadelphia, 1969
Buskirk ER, Lundegren H, Magnusson L. Heat acclimation patterns in obese and lean individuals. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 131: 637–653, 1965
Catania J, Thompson JW, Michalewski HA, Bowman TE. Comparison of sweat gland counts, electrodermal activity and habituation behavior in young and old groups of subjects. Psychophysiology 17: 146–152, 1980
Cempla J, Szopa J. Decrease of maximum oxygen consumption in men and women during the fourth to sixth decades of life in the light of cross-sectional studies of Cracow population. Biology of Sport 2: 45–49, 1985
Chiang BN, Montoye HJ, Cunningham DA. Treadmill exercise study by healthy males in a total community — Tecumsech, Michigan: clinical and electrocardiographic characteristics. American Journal of Epidemiology 91: 368–377, 1970
Crowe JP, Moore RE. Physiological and behavioural responses of aged men to passive heating. Journal of Physiology (London) 236: 43P–45P, 1973
Davies CTM. Thermoregulation during exercise in relation to sex and age. Eurpean Journal of Applied Physiology 42: 71–79, 1979
Dehn MM, Bruce RA. Longitudinal variations in maximal oxygen intake with age and activity. Journal of Applied Physiology 33: 805–807, 1972
Dill DB, Costill DL. Calculation of percentage changes in volume of blood, plasma, and red cells in dehydration. Journal of Applied Physiology 37: 247–248, 1974
Drinkwater BL, Horvath SM. Heat tolerance and aging. Medicine and Science in Sports 11: 49–55, 1979
Ellis FP, Exton-Smith AN, Foster KG, Weiner JS. Eccrine sweating mortality during heat waves in very young and very old persons. Israel Journal of Medical Sciences 12: 815–817, 1976
Fennel WH, Moore RE. Responses of aged men to passive heating. Journal of Physiology 231: 118P–119P, 1973
Frye AJ, Kamon E. Responses to dry heat of men and women with similar aerobic capacities. Journal of Applied Physiology 50: 65–70, 1981
Frye AJ, Kamon E, Webb M. Responses of menstrual women, amenorrheal women and men to exercise in a hot dry environment. European Journal of Applied Physiology 48: 279–288, 1982
Gonzalez RR, Berglund LG, Stolwijk JAJ. Thermoregulation in humans of different ages during thermal transients. Szeleyi & Szekely (Eds) Satellite Symposium of the 28th International Congress of Physiological Sciences, Pecs, Hungary, 1980
Harrison MH. Heat and exercise: effects on blood volume. Sports Medicine 3: 214–223, 1986
Hellon RF, Lind AR. Observations of the activity of sweat glands with special reference to the influence of aging. Journal of Physiology 133: 132–144, 1956
Hellon RF, Lind AR, Weiner JS. The physiological reactions of men of two age groups to a hot environment. Journal of Physiology (London) 133: 118–131, 1956
Henschel A, Burton L, Margolies L, Smith JE. An analysis of the heat deaths in St Louis during July 1966. American Journal of Public Health 59: 2232, 1969
Hodgson JL, Buskirk ER. Physical fitness and age, with emphasis on cardiovascular function in the elderly. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 25: 385–392, 1977
Kamon E. Ergonomics of heat and cold. Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine 33: 145–182, 1975
Kasch FW, Wallace JP, Van Camp SP. Effects of 18 years of endurance exercise on the physical work capacity of older men. Journal of Cardiac Rehabilitation 5: 308–312, 1985
Kenney RA. Physiology of aging: a synopsis. Year Book Medical Publishers, Chicago, 1982
Kenney WL, Anderson RK. Responses of older and younger women to exercise in dry and humid heat without fluid replacement. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, in press, 1987
Kenney WL, Kamon E. Comparative physiological responses of normotensive and essentially hypertensive men to exercise in the heat. European Journal of Applied Physiology 52: 196–201, 1984a
Kenney WL, Kamon E, Buskirk ER. Effects of mild essential hypertension on control of forearm blood flow during exercise in the heat. Journal of Applied Physiology 56: 930–936, 1984b
Levine JA. Heat stroke in the aged. American Journal of Medicine 27: 251, 1969
Lind AR. A physiological criterion for setting thermal environmental limits for everyday work. Journal of Applied Physiology 18: 51–56, 1963
Lind AR, Humphreys PW, Collins KJ, Foster K, Sweetland K. Influence of age and daily duration of exposure on responses of men to work in heat. Journal of Applied Physiology 28: 50–56, 1970
MacKinnon PCB. Variations with age in the number of active palmor digital sweat glands. Journal of Neurology 17: 124–126, 1954
Miescher E, Fortney SM. Effect of age on thermal and plasma responses to dehydration and rehydration in a hot dry environment. Abstract. Federation Proceedings 46: 323, 1987
Nielsen B. Thermoregulation in rest and exercise. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica 323 (Suppl.): 1–74, 1969
Phillips PA, Rolls BJ, Ledingham JGG, Forsling ML, Morton JJ, et al. Reduced thirst after water deprivation in healthy elderly men. New England Journal of Medicine 311: 753–759, 1984
Robinson S. Experimental studies of physical fitness in relation to age. Arbeitsphysiologie 10: 251–323, 1938
Robinson S. The effect of body size upon energy exchange in work. American Journal of Physiology 136: 363–368, 1942
Robinson S, Belding HS, Consolazio FC, Horvath SM, Turell ES. Acclimation of older men to work in the heat. Journal of Applied Physiology 20: 583–586, 1965
Rowland M, Roberts J. Blood pressure levels and hypertension in persons aged 6 to 74 years: United States, 1976–80. Advancedata 84: 1–12, 1982
Saltin B, Hermansen L. Esophageal, rectal and muscle temperature during exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology 21: 1757–1762, 1966
Shephard RJ. Physical activity and aging. Yearbook Medical Publishers, Chicago, 1978
Shoenfield Y, Udassin R, Shapiro Y, Ohri A, Sohar E. Age and sex difference in response to short exposure to extreme dry heat. Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental and Exercise Physiology 44: 1–4, 1978
Silver A, Montagna W, Karaean I. Age and sex differences in spontaneous, adrenergic and cholinergic human sweating. Journal of Investigative Dermatology 43: 255–256, 1964
Szabo G. The number of eccrine sweat glands in human skin. In Montagna et al. (Eds) Advances in biology of skin. Vol. 3, pp. 1–5, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1962
United States Bureau of the Census. Age, sex, race and Spanish origin of the population by regions, divisions and states, 1980. (Suppl. Report PC 80-31-1) US Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C, 1981
Vogel JA, Patton JF, Mello RP, Daniels WL. An analysis of aerobic capacity in a large United States population. Journal of Applied Physiology 60: 494–500, 1986
Vroman NB, Buskirk ER, Hodgson JL. Cardiac output and skin blood flow in lean and obese individuals during exercise in the heat. Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental and Exercise Physiology 55: 69–74, 1983
Wade OL, Bishop JM. Cardiac output and regional blood flow. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1962
Wagner JA, Robinson S, Tzankoff SP, Mario RP. Heat tolerance and acclimatization to work in the heat in relation to age. Journal of Applied Physiology 33: 616–622, 1972
Yousef MK, Dill DB, Vitez TS, Hillyard SB, Goldman AS. Thermoregulatory responses to desert heat: age, race, and sex. Journal of Gerontology 49: 406–414, 1984
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kenney, W.L., Hodgson, J.L. Heat Tolerance, Thermoregulation and Ageing. Sports Medicine 4, 446–456 (1987). https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-198704060-00004
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-198704060-00004