Cortisol and Interleukin-6 responses during intermittent work in a hot/dry versus warm/wet environment

Circulating Cortisol (COR) and Interleukin (IL)-6 concentrations are commonly used as biomarkers of stress and metabolic changes during exercise and heat stress. Given that workplace safety guidelines are often based upon wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) to define exposure limits for work in the heat, it is important to understand the neuroendocrine and immune responses to a given level of thermal strain with differing environmental parameters (i.e., air temperature, humidity). We examined the relationship between biomarker levels and thermal strain under differing environmental conditions of the same WBGT using whole-body calorimetry as the gold standard for measuring the rates of whole-body evaporative and dry heat loss, and thus changes in mean body temperature (\u394Tb) and body heat content (\u394Hb).Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: N