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Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events

Heat waves represent a public health risk to elderly people, and typically result in an increased rate of hospital admissions and deaths. Studies of thermoregulation in this cohort have generally focused on single elements such as sweating capacity. Sweating capacity and skin blood flow reduce with...

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Autores principales: Millyard, Alison, Layden, Joe D., Pyne, David B., Edwards, Andrew M., Bloxham, Saul R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7297481/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32596421
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2333721420932432
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author Millyard, Alison
Layden, Joe D.
Pyne, David B.
Edwards, Andrew M.
Bloxham, Saul R.
author_facet Millyard, Alison
Layden, Joe D.
Pyne, David B.
Edwards, Andrew M.
Bloxham, Saul R.
author_sort Millyard, Alison
collection PubMed
description Heat waves represent a public health risk to elderly people, and typically result in an increased rate of hospital admissions and deaths. Studies of thermoregulation in this cohort have generally focused on single elements such as sweating capacity. Sweating capacity and skin blood flow reduce with age, reducing ability to dissipate heat. Perception of effort during heat exposure is emerging as an area that needs further investigation as the elderly appear to lack the ability to adequately perceive increased physiological strain during heat exposure. The role of the gut and endotoxemia in heat stress has received attention in young adults, while the elderly population has been neglected. This shortcoming offers another potential avenue for identifying effective integrated health interventions to reduce heat illnesses. Increasing numbers of elderly individuals in populations worldwide are likely to increase the incidence of heat wave-induced deaths if adequate interventions are not developed, evaluated, and implemented. In this narrative-style review we identify and discuss health-related interventions for reducing the impact of heat illnesses in the elderly.
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spelling pubmed-72974812020-06-25 Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events Millyard, Alison Layden, Joe D. Pyne, David B. Edwards, Andrew M. Bloxham, Saul R. Gerontol Geriatr Med Review Article Heat waves represent a public health risk to elderly people, and typically result in an increased rate of hospital admissions and deaths. Studies of thermoregulation in this cohort have generally focused on single elements such as sweating capacity. Sweating capacity and skin blood flow reduce with age, reducing ability to dissipate heat. Perception of effort during heat exposure is emerging as an area that needs further investigation as the elderly appear to lack the ability to adequately perceive increased physiological strain during heat exposure. The role of the gut and endotoxemia in heat stress has received attention in young adults, while the elderly population has been neglected. This shortcoming offers another potential avenue for identifying effective integrated health interventions to reduce heat illnesses. Increasing numbers of elderly individuals in populations worldwide are likely to increase the incidence of heat wave-induced deaths if adequate interventions are not developed, evaluated, and implemented. In this narrative-style review we identify and discuss health-related interventions for reducing the impact of heat illnesses in the elderly. SAGE Publications 2020-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7297481/ /pubmed/32596421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2333721420932432 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Review Article
Millyard, Alison
Layden, Joe D.
Pyne, David B.
Edwards, Andrew M.
Bloxham, Saul R.
Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events
title Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events
title_full Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events
title_fullStr Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events
title_full_unstemmed Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events
title_short Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events
title_sort impairments to thermoregulation in the elderly during heat exposure events
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7297481/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32596421
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2333721420932432
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