Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Comorbidity and Environmental Temperature

Summary

Both high and low environmental temperatures are associated worldwide with higher morbidity and mortality and an estimated 8% of the mortality is estimated to relate to non-optimum temperatures. The majority of the adverse health effects occur at to low, and not high temperatures, and already with a modest change in temperature. Persons with type 2 diabetes can be sensitive to the effect of temperature due to their altered neural, metabolic and circulatory functions. The pathophysiological responses of type 2 diabetes in a cold and hot environment are not known.

The aim of the study is to examine how advanced type 2 diabetes (disease progression \>10 years) alone, an in conjunction with coronary artery diseases and hypertension affect neural, cardiovascular and metabolic responses in a cold and hot environment.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with altered neural regulation, weakened cardiovascular function, structural changes in blood vessels, altered blood constitution and metabolic disturbances. These affect thermoregulation and result in increased susceptibility to cold (lesser heat production, increased heat loss) and heat (lesser sweating and heat loss).

The patients are exposed under controlled conditions in a random order to both cold (+10°C) and heat (+44°C) while resting and lightly clothed for 90 min at a time. The exposure itself is preceded by baseline measurements of the parameters of interest, and followed by repeating the same measurements after the exposure.

The topic of the research is very relevant due to the worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes. Simultaneously, the comorbid conditions associated with diabetes become more common and are related to a higher occurrence of cardiac events. The research information is useful for all individuals with type 2 diabetes in their protection and self-management of the disease, and enabling to maintain functional ability in a cold or hot environment. The research knowledge can be utilized when developing weather warning systems for the identification of susceptible populations. Health care personnel may utilize the research information while advising their patients and for proper care. An increased awareness of the health effects of both low and high temperatures improve the functional ability of individuals and reduced help reducing morbidity and mortality from weather conditions.

Conditions

• Type 2 Diabetes

Interventions

OTHER

Cold exposure

Whole body resting cold (+10 degrees centigrade) and heat (+40 degrees centigrade) for 60 minutes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Maastricht University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Oulu

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-01-01

Primary Completion

2023-12-31

Completion

2023-12-31

Countries

• Finland

Study Locations