Effects of fitness, fatness, and age on men's responses to whole body cooling in air.

ABSTRACT

Simple and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the influence of 12 white men's fitness (aerobic capacity 44-58 ml O2.min-1.kg fat-free mass-1), fatness (mean skin-fold thickness 5-20 mm, body fat content 15-36%), and age (26-52 yr) on their thermal, metabolic, cardiovascular, and subjective responses to 2 h of whole body cooling, nude, in air at 10 degrees C. Fitter men had slower heart rates, and fatter men had higher blood pressures. Fitness had no effect (P greater than 0.39) on any measured response to cold. Fatness was associated (P less than 0.01) with reduced heat loss, heat production, and mean skin temperature; unchanged heat debt; and increased tissue insulation. Age had the opposite effects. When the confounding effects of fatness were held constant by multiple regression, older men responded to cold as though they were 1 mm of skinfold thickness leaner for each 3-4 yr of age. We conclude that aging, even between the relatively youthful ages of 26 and 52 yr, is accompanied by a progressive weakening of the vasoconstrictor response to cold.