For about 30 minutes, the humidity was kept at 30 percent and then increased by 2 percent every 5 minutes, reaching a high of 70 percent.
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Six females and three men with an average age of 68 sat in a room where the temperature was around 108 degrees F for over 100 minutes.
Although these findings suggest that fan use may be counterproductive for seniors during heat waves, the researchers propose that fan use may still be beneficial under less extreme environmental conditions, though this needs to be confirmed.
Older people are at risk of increasing their heart rate and core temperature by using electric fans, new research warns. However, the researchers mentioned that this study examined a temperature of 108 degrees, which could have been a limitation.
The volunteers were placed in the heated rooms and on days that were chosen at random, they were given a 16-inch electric fan which was positioned at approximately three feet away from them.
Electric fans keep young adults cool by increasing the evaporation of sweat. Typical heart rates are 60 to 100 beats per minute. No drinks were allowed during the test and their heart rates, sweat loss and core temperatures were documented.
The difference in results can be explained by sweat – the body’s way of cooling down to avoid overheating.
“If that could cause a temperature to be a degree or a degree and a half higher, that could have detrimental effects”, he noted. Craig Crandall, the lead author of the study and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, believes that although these temperatures are not often, they still occur.
Dr. Sarah Samaan, a cardiologist at the Heart Hospital at Baylor in Plano, Texas, agreed that elevated core temperatures could put excessive strain on the heart and aggravate conditions such as high blood pressure and angina [chest pain when the heart muscle is not getting enough blood]. If an older person doesn’t personally have air-conditioning, he or she might consider going to a neighbor’s or a family member’s home, a community or senior center, or possibly a movie theater or mall.
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The critical relative humidity values for heart rate were 53 percent when fans were turned on and 56 percent when there were no fans, while the core temperature values were 65 percent and 63 percent, respectively.
