Cooling Strategies for Older Adults in the Heat
Completed · Not applicable · Has a placebo group
Conditions studied: Aging
In brief
The earth's climate is warming, and the number of heat waves has increased in recent years. At the same time, the number of adults over the age of 65 is growing. Humans sweat and increase blood flow to the skin to cool their body when they get hot. Older adults do not do this as well as young adults. This makes it harder to safely be in warm and/or humid conditions. It is important to learn about cooling strategies for older adults to safely be in warm and/or humid conditions. There is compelling evidence that intermittent hand and forearm cold-water immersion effectively reduces the rise of core temperature during heat stress in older adults. However, it is still unknown if this is an effective cooling strategy for older adults. Furthermore, our laboratory has shown that folic acid supplementation improves blood flow responses in older adults. This may be beneficial to older adults during heat stress.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT06349616
- Run by
- Penn State University
- People needed
- 12
- Starts
- 2024-05-01
- Expected to finish
- 2025-07-21
- Last updated by the study team
- 2025-07-24
Who can join
Age: 65 and older, up to 100. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Adults aged 65 and older
- English proficiency
You may not qualify if…
- Chron's disease, diverticulitis, or similar gastrointestinal disease
- Abnormal resting exercise electrocardiogram (ECG)
- Tobacco use
- High-risk determined by the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factor Assessment
- Antiepileptic or antiseizure medications
- Methotrexate
Where it is running
- Noll Laboratory — University Park, Pennsylvania, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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