Does Heat Stress Improve the Acute Metabolic and Cardiovascular Adaptations to Exercise

Life in space is completely void of physical and environmental stress. It is well known that living things need regular physical stress (e.g. exercise) to remain strong, functional and healthy. More and more research is showing that regular environmental stress, for example heat and hypoxia, can further improve physical health. Astronauts aboard the international space station (ISS) exercise for 1-2 hours every day to avoid physical deconditioning that would otherwise cause them to age rapidly in space. Although physical exercise is very effective in remedying this deconditioning, today's astronauts still have physiological changes that indicate accelerated aging. This is a cause for concern given NASA's priority to travel to mars within the next decade; a mission that will require at least double the duration in space for our astronauts. The investigators think that the complete absence of environmental stress, i.e., heat, may be contributing to the accelerated aging that occurs during spaceflight. Our study will assess the health effects of adding heat stress to exercise that could be performed in space by astronauts. The goal is to inform best practice for astronauts to avoid physical deconditioning during long-duration spaceflight. This information will also be relevant to life on earth as spaceflight is a model of inactivity here on earth. Therefore, the potential benefits of adding heat stress will likely translate to life in space and on earth.