Thermoregulation During Exercise

Exercise-induced hyperthermia has been more widely studied in recent years. Generally, people with tetraplegia experience a greater rise in body temperature with exercise than people with paraplegia, even when exercising at similar output/exertion levels, likely due to an increased difficulty in dispersing endogenously produced heat (Price & Campbell 2003). Price and Campbell (2003) also found that neither persons with paraplegia nor those with tetraplegia showed any alteration in thigh skin temperature despite changes in core body temperature post-exercise.

It is also common for people with tetraplegia to take longer to cooldown after exercise; Boot et al. (2006) found that when exercising in the cold, mean body temperature decreases in people with high-level SCI and lower-level SCI were both greater than participants without SCI.

Differentiating between those with and without temperature dysregulation may be helpful in discerning those with autonomic incompleteness (whether or not there is motor and sensory completeness). Both skin and core body temperature above and below the level of injury can be helpful in assessing autonomic function (Krassioukov et al. 2007). Regardless, precautions should be taken for people with SCI when exercising in the cold or heat; techniques as simple as asking about the person’s experience with exercise and their temperature fluctuations, or cool-water foot baths before or during exercise, can be successful in restoring normal body temperature (Boot et al. 2006; Hagobian et al. 2004).