Humans and Warm Environments: Physiology, Health and Behaviour

In the context of global warming and the increasing risk of modern building overheating, the main goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the capacity of the human body to adapt to warm environments, both physiologically and behaviourally. Moreover, the effect of warm environments on human cardiovascular and metabolic health was investigated. Our study results show that the human body indeed adapts to warm environments, making us more resilient to high temperatures. Interestingly, repeated exposure to (mild) heat also elicits improvements of cardiovascular health and glucose metabolism. This suggests a potential for heat as a therapy for cardiovascular diseases and disturbed glucose metabolism, and should be investigated further in the future.