The acute effect of whole-body heat therapy on peripheral and cerebral vascular reactivity in Black and White females

Among females in the U.S., Black females suffer the most from cardiovascular disease and stroke. While the reasons for this disparity are multifactorial, vascular dysfunction likely contributes. Chronic whole-body heat therapy (WBHT) improves vascular function, but few studies have examined its acute effect on peripheral or cerebral vascular function, which may help elucidate chronic adaptative mechanisms. Furthermore, no studies have investigated this effect in Black females. We hypothesized that Black females would have lower peripheral and cerebral vascular function relative to White females and that one session of WBHT would mitigate these differences. Eighteen young, healthy Black (n = 9; 21 +/- 3 yr; BMI: 24.7 +/- 4.5 kg/m2) and White (n = 9; 27 +/- 3 yr; BMI: 24.8 +/- 4.1 kg/m2) females underwent one 60 min session of WBHT (49 degrees C water via a tube-lined suit). Pre- and 45 min post-testing measures included post-occlusive forearm reactive hyperemia (peripheral microvascular function, RH), brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (peripheral macrovascular function, FMD), and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to hypercapnia. Prior to WBHT, there were no differences in RH, FMD, or CVR (p > 0.05 for all). WBHT improved peak RH in both groups (main effect of WBHT: 79.6 +/- 20.1 cm/s to 95.9 +/- 30.0 cm/s; p = 0.004, g = 0.787) but not Delta blood velocity (p > 0.05 for both groups). WBHT improved FMD in both groups (6.2 +/- 3.4 % to 8.8 +/- 3.7 %; p = 0.016, g = 0.618) but had no effect on CVR in either group (p = 0.077). These data indicate that one session of WBHT acutely improves peripheral micro- and macrovascular but not cerebral vascular function in Black and White females.