Acral skin vasoreactivity and thermosensitivity to hand cooling following 5 days of intermittent whole body cold exposure

Abstract

We sought to examine whether short-term, whole body cold acclimation would modulate finger vasoreactivity and thermosensitivity to localized cooling. Fourteen men were equally assigned to either the experimental (CA) or the control (CON) group. The CA group was immersed to the chest in 14°C water for ≤120 min daily over a 5-day period while the skin temperature of the right-hand fingers was clamped at ∼35.5°C. The CON group was instructed to avoid any cold exposure during this period. Before and after the intervention, both groups performed, on two different consecutive days, a local cold provocation trial consisting of a 30-min hand immersion in 8°C water while immersed to the chest once in 21°C (mild-hypothermic trial; 0.5°C fall in rectal temperature from individual preimmersion values) and on the other occasion in 35.5°C (normothermic trial). In the CA group, the cold-induced reduction in finger temperature was less (mild-hypothermic trial: P = 0.05; normothermic trial: P = 0.02), and the incidence of the cold-induced vasodilation episodes was greater (in normothermic trials: P = 0.04) in the post- than in the preacclimation trials. The right-hand thermal discomfort was also attenuated (mild-hypothermic trial: P = 0.04; normothermic trial: P = 0.01). The finger temperature responses of the CON group did not vary between testing periods. Our findings suggest that repetitive whole body exposure to severe cold within a week may attenuate finger vasoreactivity and thermosensitivity to localized cooling. These regional thermo-adaptions were ascribed to central neural habituation produced by the iterative, generalized cold stimulation.