Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Comorbidity and Environmental Temperature

Both high and low environmental temperatures are associated worldwide with higher morbidity and mortality and an estimated 8% of the mortality is estimated to relate to non-optimum temperatures. The majority of the adverse health effects occur at to low, and not high temperatures, and already with a modest change in temperature. Persons with type 2 diabetes can be sensitive to the effect of temperature due to their altered neural, metabolic and circulatory functions. The pathophysiological responses of type 2 diabetes in a cold and hot environment are not known. The aim of the study is to examine how advanced type 2 diabetes (disease progression \>10 years) alone, an in conjunction with coronary artery diseases and hypertension affect neural, cardiovascular and metabolic responses in a cold and hot environment. Type 2 diabetes is associated with altered neural regulation, weakened cardiovascular function, structural changes in blood vessels, altered blood constitution and metabolic disturbances. These affect thermoregulation and result in increased susceptibility to cold (lesser heat production, increased heat loss) and heat (lesser sweating and heat loss). The patients are exposed under controlled conditions in a random order to both cold (+10°C) and heat (+44°C) while resting and lightly clothed for 90 min at a time. The exposure itself is preceded by baseline measurements of the parameters of interest, and followed by repeating the same measurements after the exposure. The topic of the research is very relevant due to the worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes. Simultaneously, the comorbid conditions associated with diabetes become more common and are related to a higher occurrence of cardiac events. The research information is useful for all individuals with type 2 diabetes in their protection and self-management of the disease, and enabling to maintain functional ability in a cold or hot environment. The research knowledge can be utilized when developing wea