Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In addition to its role as an environmental stressor, scientists have recently shown that heat has the potential to be used as a therapy for improving or mitigating declines in cardiovascular health. However, the optimal parameters (i.e., duration, localization, intensity) for prescription are currently unknown. A number of mechanisms are involved in the blood flow response to heating, and they become activated at different time points through heating. Therefore, we sought to determine the effect of 10 minutes vs. 30 minutes of local forearm heating on artery function. Five young, healthy males were recruited. In two separate visits, a heating pad set to high was wrapped around the left forearm for either 10 or 30 minutes. Artery function was measured using a brachial artery (BA) flow-mediated dilation (FMD) test before and after each intervention. We found that BA FMD improved similarly with the 10-minute or 30-minute heating protocols, suggesting that the layering of multiple local mechanisms may not further enhance the acute artery function responses to a heat stress intervention.