About this Research Topic

Background

Heat stress can negatively impact health and performance outcomes and affects athletes, occupational workers, and military personnel. Given the inevitable and continued rise in global temperatures due to climate change, humans will continue to be subjected to both acute and chronic heat stress; both of which can have a detrimental impact on human health. The development and implementation of effective heat mitigation strategies to optimize health and performance relies on a thorough understanding of the physiologic responses to acute and chronic heat stress and how these responses can be translated into data-informed decisions. Thus concerted efforts are needed to continue to build upon this body of knowledge.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance 1) the understanding of acute and chronic responses and adaptations to heat stress, 2) the efficacy of heat mitigation strategies on risk reduction, performance, and physiologic adaptation, 3) our knowledge of acute and chronic heat stress exposure on human health and performance. We seek laboratory and field-based research exploring the above-mentioned topics that have the potential to drive the development and implementation of effective strategies to optimize human health and performance. We also seek articles that provide new perspectives or frameworks in these areas that can drive future hypothesis-driven research.

Relevant research areas include, but are not limited to:

Acute and chronic responses to heat stress.
Acute and chronic adaptation to heat stress.
Impact of Heat mitigation strategies on acute and chronic physiologic responses and adaptations to heat stress.
Provide practical approaches for the practitioner serving sport, occupational, and military settings to optimize human health and performance.
The translation and implementation of laboratory and field-based research into real-world settings.

Dr. Adams receives royalties from Springer Nature. Dr. Adams receives compensation for his service on the advisory boards for My Normative and Emerja Corporation as well as the Sport Advisory Council for the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance. Dr. Adams has previously received research funding from the following industry sponsors: Emerja Corporation, QCK LLC, Statim Technologies LLC, Techguard LLC, and Bedgear. Lastly, Dr. Adams is the owner of Adams Sports Medicine Consulting LLC. Dr. Sekiguchi, Dr. Thornton, and Dr. Benjamin declare no competing interests.

Keywords: Heat Stress, Heat exposure, Exercise Performance, Health, Injury Prevention

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