NCT05678738

Acquiring and Targeting Heat Exposures Necessary for Action

Enhancing Lethality by Targeting Cognitive and Physiological Mechanisms of Female Warfighter Resiliency to Consecutive Days of Intense Exercise in the Heat

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 108 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Connecticut · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this research study is to better understand ways that women and men differ physiologically, cognitively, physically, and cellularly to better prescribe helpful interventions that will prevent injury and risk of conditions like exertional heat illnesses or heatstroke. The main questions this project aims to answer are: 1. What is the relative stress contributing to performance differences between women and men during intense exercise in extremely hot and humid environments in response to exertional heat stress? 2. What is the relative contribution of responses in adipose tissue, cardiovascular tissue, gut microbiota, and musculoskeletal tissue on heat tolerance in women (vs. men) to exertional heat stress? 3. What is the impact of adding an antioxidant juice consumption regime and will it assist in enhancing performance during an acute bout of exercise-heat stress before and after heat acclimation? Subjects enrolled and approved for participation will perform: 1. a heat acclimation protocol which includes the completion of 5 days of prescribed exercise-heat exposure 2. two separate acute exercise-heat exposures for the assessment of thermotolerance and the investigation of potential enhancements in thermoregulatory performance that may occur after the completion of a 5-day heat acclimation protocol 3. a subset of subjects enrolled and approved for participation who opt in to antioxidant berry supplement consumption will either consume the active or placebo product throughout their participation.

Conditions

• Heat Intolerance
• Heat Stress
• Fatigue; Heat

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Antioxidant Berry Supplementation	Participants who opt-in will be instructed to consume 300mL of the bioactive (antioxidant berry) supplement every morning and afternoon during days of participation.
OTHER	Acute and Chronic Exercise-Heat Stress	All participants (male and female) will be exposed to repeated bouts of exercise-heat stress.
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Placebo (non-juice) Supplementation	Participants who opt-in will be instructed to consume 300mL of the placebo (non-juice) supplement every morning and afternoon during days of participation.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-09-16
• Primary completion: 2024-04-17
• Completion: 2024-04-17
• First posted: 2023-01-10
• Last updated: 2025-09-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States