Authors: JooYoung Lee Kouhei Nakao Ilham Bakri Yutaka Tochihara
Publish Date: 2011/10/02
Volume: 112, Issue: 6, Pages: 2171-2183
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of menthol application according to the amount of surface area on physiological and psychological heat strains along with body regional influences Male students underwent two stages of experiments Experiment 1 Cutaneous thermal threshold test at rest on eight body regions with/without a 08 menthol application at T a 28°C and 50 RH Experiment 2 Six exercise tests with/without a 08 menthol spray at T a 28°C and 40 RH while wearing firefighter’s protective clothing No menthol PCNO Face and neck menthol PCFN Upper body menthol PCUP Whole body menthol application PCWB or wearing normal clothing No menthol NCNO Upper body menthol NCUP Experiment 1 showed that menthol caused no significant influence on cutaneous warm thresholds while menthol applications evoked earlier detection of cool sensations especially on the chest P = 0043 Experiment 2 revealed that NCUP PCUP and PCWB caused lower mean skin temperature especially with higher peripheral vasoconstrictions on the extremities at rest During exercise NCUP PCUP and PCWB induced greater and earlier increases in rectal temperatures T re and a delayed sweat response but lessened psychological burdens P 005 Both physiological and psychological effects of PCFN were insignificant For a composite analysis individual Menthol Sensitivity Index at cooling in Experiment 1 had significant relationships with the threshold for T re increase and changes in heart rate in NCUP of Experiment 2 P 005 Our results indicate that menthol’s topical influence is body regiondependent as well as depending on the exposed body surface areaWe would like to express our thanks to SuYoung Son Mutsuhiro Fujiwara Shizuka Umezaki and Eric A Stone for their technical advice and secretarial support We are grateful to all subjects for their participation This study was supported by the Promotion Program for Fire and Disaster Prevention Technologies Japan
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