Abstract
A study was conducted to investigate the effect of cooling hands of feet on human thermoregulation in the cold. Eight young (22$\pm$1 yr) and eight aged (69$\pm$4 yr) men volun-teered as subjects They stayed at 1$0^{\circ}C$ in the supine posture during the experiment which included hands or feet exposure to the air for 20 minutes. Hand Exposure (HE) and Foot Exposure (FE) were conducted in radomized order and the baseline was kept before HE and FE. Core temperatures, limb skin temperatures adn thermal sensations were measured. Obtained data were analyze using t-test and correlation. Rectal and esophageal tem-peratures increased in the young (YG) and in aged (AG). Change rate of esophageal temperature (Tes) was maintained higher during FE than HE while rectal temperature showed no differences between YG and AG, and between HE and FE. Hand and foot skintemperature in YG and AG decreased similarly during HE and Fe. Forearm skin temperature during HE decreased while leg skin temperature during FE showed no change HE and Fe. It was concluded that the lower cooling. Furthermore, the increase of Tes was greater in young men than aged men. It is also suggested that the wearing behavior can be differently modified between young and aged men.
