{"doi":"10.1113/ep092789","title":"Intermittent hand and forearm immersion in 20°C water attenuates thermal, cardiovascular, and perceptual strain in older adults during heat stress","abstract":"Adults >65 years of age experience deleterious health effects during extreme heat events at a greater rate than any other age cohort. The purpose of this study was to identify the effectiveness of acute intermittent hand and forearm (H+F) water immersion and/or chronic (7 week) folic acid supplementation on reducing thermal and cardiovascular strain in older adults during heat stress. Twelve older adults (six female; 65-89 years of age) were exposed to 2 h of heat stress at 34°C and 77% relative humidity during seated rest, with and without H+F immersion, following folic acid or placebo supplementation. During immersion trials, participants immersed both H+F in cool tap water (∼20°C) for 10 min at min 60 and 90. Core temperature, skin temperature and heart rate were monitored continuously, and blood pressure and the rate-pressure product were recorded every 10 min. Data were analysed as absolute changes and as a delta from min 50 (i.e., immediately before cooling). There was no effect of folic acid on any variable (all p > 0.05). Absolute and delta core temperature, skin temperature and heart rate increased over time (p ≤ 0.041); however, H+F water immersion attenuated this increase (p ≤ 0.046) after the first cooling bout. Likewise, absolute and delta RPP increased over time (p ≤ 0.047), but absolute RPP was attenuated with H+F water immersion (p = 0.003). These data suggest that intermittent H+F water immersion effectively attenuates thermal and cardiovascular strain for older adults at rest during heat stress.","journal":"Experimental Physiology","year":2025,"id":526199,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9589,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1031920,"name":"Kat G. Fisher","orcid":"0009-0002-5231-1719","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1222752,"name":"Olivia K. Leach","orcid":"0009-0004-6934-7755","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":225311,"name":"David E. Conroy","orcid":"0000-0003-0204-4093","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339385,"name":"Lacy M. Alexander","orcid":"0000-0002-1294-8582","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339381,"name":"W. Larry Kenney","orcid":"0000-0002-1326-8175","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":621881,"name":"Rachel M. Cottle","orcid":"0000-0002-6567-9785","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":63,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:50:30.402772Z","pmid":"40621864","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}