Defining human thermoregulation limits: a critical evaluation of predictive models using healthy young adults
Faming Wang, Huijuan Xu, Tze‐Huan Lei, Yi Xu, H. Wang, Lijuan Wang
2025American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology8 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF
Abstract
This study reveals that widely used methods-core temperature inflection point and biophysical models-substantially underestimate human thermoregulation limits during prolonged heat exposure. Despite predictions of uncompensable heat stress, all five 8-h trials remained compensable, with core temperatures well below critical thresholds. These findings challenge the accuracy of current predictive tools and highlight the need to refine models to better assess heat risk in real-world, prolonged exposure scenarios.
Topics & Concepts
ThermoregulationPsychologyMedicineInternal medicineClimate Change and Health Impacts