Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the improved cold tolerance resulting from cool clothing in winter on heat tolerance in summer. Ten healthy women were divided into two groups, cold group(C group) (n=5) and warm group(W group) (n=5) . In the previous study, C group was proved that their cold acclimatization was achieved through wearing cool clothing from September to February of the following year, while Wgroup was not proved because of wearing warm clothing during same period. After February, no more clothing training was continued in two groups. To determine the heat tolerance, both groups were exposed from a thermoneutral environment(25$\pm$1$^{\circ}C$, 50$\pm$5% R.H.) to a hot environment (35$\pm$1$^{\circ}C$, 50$\pm$5% R.H.) before and after clothing training, respectively September in 1994 and truly in 1995. Rectal temperature, skin temperatures, thermal sensation and comfort were measured every 10 min., and Os uptake was measured at 10, 45, 85 min. after entering the chamber for 5 min. Body weight was measured before and after the experiment and amount of local sweat was measured during the 90 min long experiment. The results are as follows: Rectal temperatures in 35'c environment of C group were increased after training when compared with before clothing, while those of W group were not changed. But the changes of rectal temperature and heat production during 90 min in hot environment were almost the same in two groups after training. And mean skin temperatures, the changes of mean skin temperatures during 90 min in hot environment, total sweat amount and local sweat amount after training were also the same in two groups. From these results, it might be supposed that the heat loss of two groups were the same but the heat production, especially heat production during rest in C group was higher than in Wgroup. This fact suggests that the increase of rest heat production from cold acclimatization in winter is maintained to summer of the following year. And mild cold acclimatization coming from westing cool clothing does not have a negative effect on heat tolerance.