Economical Sweating Function in Africans: Quantitative Sudomotor Axon Reflex Test

People in tropics have the ability to tolerate heat by residential permanence in the tropics. Previously, we have shown that African and Thai subjects who lived for whole their lives in only their respective countries sweat less under hot conditions than South Koreans who also lived whole their lives in Korea. The difference in sweating responses was attributed to the dissimilar central and peripheral sweating mechanisms operating in people from both groups. In the present study, acetylcholine (ACh), the primary transmitter for the sudomotor functions, was iontophoretically administered to South Koreans and Africans to determine the characteristic sudorific responses of their acclimatized biologic make-up to their respective environments. Using quantitative sudomotor axon reflex test (QSART), direct (DIR) and axon reflex (AXR) responses were evaluated. The findings revealed that the sweat onset-time among South Koreans was 0.91 min earlier than among Africans (P