Thermal and metabolic responses of Arctic Indians to moderate cold exposure at the end of winter

¹ Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, and Royal Norwegian Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine, University of Oslo, Blindern, Norway

Oxygen consumption, skin temperature and rectal temperature during nights of cold exposure were measured in eight Indian men from a remote arctic village who had been similarly studied the previous fall. The metabolic response of the Indians to cold exposure was similar in the spring to that observed in the fall studies. All subjects showed a general increase of about 30% in O₂ consumption during the night. In addition, the basal metabolic rate of four subjects measured was slightly above the DuBois standards, as in the fall. A decline in rectal and skin temperatures throughout the night was observed to be similar to that of the same subjects in the fall, with the exception that the surface temperatures of arms and legs were slightly cooler in the spring. It was concluded that, except for a tendency toward heat conservation by cooling of extremities, no metabolic or thermal changes of a seasonal nature had taken place in these subjects during the arctic winter.