Thermoregulatory Changes in Obese Mexican Young Women Performing Aerobic Exercise

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Mexico has the highest rate of obesity worldwide. This pandemic is defined as an abnormal and excessive accumulation of adipose tissue providing an insulating layer that impedes heat loss, thus affecting body homeostasis. To maintain normothermia, obese individuals must increase heat dissipation. Here, we explore the potential role of thermoregulation in obese young Mexican women performing aerobic exercise in order to determine how thermoregulation mechanisms act in such conditions. A group of 60 obese (O), overweight (OW) and normal (N) women, with 20 in each group, performed a 15 min test on the cycle‐ergometer at a 65% heart rate (HR) at room temperature (21.0±0.5) °C and under extreme temperature (38.5±0.5) °C conditions. Body mass index (BMI) and % body fat were calculated. HR, blood pressure (Bp), and core (Tc) and external (Te) temperatures were measured during and after the test. We observed a difference in Tc within subjects and within groups. At room and extreme temperatures, OW and O subjects presented higher Tc compared to N ones by about 30%, adding that the initial Tc of O was higher (15%) compared to the other two groups. N women tended to reach their initial temperature faster than the other groups at room and extreme temperatures. A 45% increment of HR was observed in O compared to OW and N women. From our results we concluded that there exists a direct relation between BMI and the thermoregulatory capacity in the human body, suggesting a failure in homeostasis processes in obese women. This experiment gives us the first insight of an active indicator of a metabolic decompensation in young Mexican women and compelling evidence for a thermogenic handicap in the same population. Further analyses have to be done.Support or Funding InformationSupported partially by UNAM (PAPIIT RA207818) to KPGPThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.