PROTEIN-BOUND IODINE IN THE SERUM OF SOLDIERS AND OF ESKIMOS IN THE ARCTIC*

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
IT IS a common impression among clinicians that environmental stress which results in psychic trauma may precipitate hyperthyroidism in susceptible individuals. However, fluctuations in thyroid activity as a result of environmental changes have never been clearly demonstrated in normal humans by experimental methods. In certain animals one type of environmental stress, exposure to cold, does lead to a very substantial increase of thyroid activity (2). In the present investigation an attempt was made to determine whether exposure of normal human subjects to arctic cold would cause any stimulation of thyroid function as measured by the concentration of protein-bound iodine in the serum and by the basal metabolic rate. In addition, serum protein-bound iodine was determined in a group of Eskimos who spend their entire lifetime in the Arctic. MATERIAL AND METHODS The subjects were 7 healthy soldiers from 18 to 36 years of age stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The autumn months of 1947 constituted a control period during which the men were subjected to various tests and frequent marches. The subjects arrived at Fort Churchill, Manitoba, on December 31, 1947. They were housed in heated barracks, ate regular mess rations, and wore standard arctic clothing. Their daily routine consisted of snow-shoeing and attending an arctic indoctrination course. This kept them outside and exposed to the cold for approximately four hours daily. During part of February, however, the exposure to cold was somewhat more intense. For two weeks the subjects were in bivouac, where they lived in cloth tents heated only in the early morning and during the evening, and slept in sleeping bags. Periods of approximately six hours daily were spent outdoors marching on snowshoes or building snow houses. On April 4, 1948, the subjects returned to Fort Knox, where they were observed until May 15, 1948.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: