DR. FRANCESCONI: No, I don't. The hypohydration study which I have referenced actually had 12 women in that group of 24 test subjects and I saw no differences in hormonal responses and I don't think Dr. Sawka saw any differences in physiological responses in that study.

PARTICIPANT: My question is, do you anticipate that—this is a very small population you are looking at. There are some changes that are occurring here. Do you expect that there might be some people in a group of young men like this that might not respond the same way.?

DR. FRANCESCONI: Clearly, we can only speak for the volunteers and the conditions in this study, at least at this time. However, the consistency of the responses indicated that such responses should generally occur, especially considering the numbers of papers in the literature describing the effects of heat and exercise on circulating levels of these hormones.

PARTICIPANT: It could represent a little caution in interpreting that everybody would respond that way.

PARTICIPANT: That is what I am worried about. If you look at the number of people who have heat stroke, it is a small number but they do occur.

PARTICIPANT: I just wanted to ask—Larry [ed. Dr Armstrong] mentioned that some people couldn't make it through this rigorous heat/exercise protocol for orthopedic reasons. How bad was the drop-out rate and maybe these people don't have the endocrinological response.

DR. FRANCESCONI: I didn't see any correlation. As Dr. Armstrong mentioned, the drop-outs were primarily for reasons that you would expect on this kind of a march—foot blisters primarily, ankle pain, intra-thigh chafing, especially for subjects that were a little heavier, all those kinds of things. In some instances the volunteers would miss one or two of the 30-minute marches and then rejoin the group. In other instances they may have missed a day that was not a blood-sampling day. However, they did remain in the heat all day on those days.

DR. JOHNSON: One note that might address your question: Even though people may have stopped walking on the treadmill, they stayed in the wind tunnel. They didn't leave the hot environment. They were still there.