Characteristics of metabolism during prolonged water immersion

The effect on the organism of a 12-day stay in a water immersion medium (head on the water surface) was studied on 10 subjects. The condition of the metabolic processes in the subjects was judged from the investigation of the parameters of protein and carbohydrate metabolism, acid-base equilibrium, the activity of a number of enzymes and steroid hormones. The venous blood and diurnal urine served as the material for conducting the corresponding biochemical determinations. The stay in an immersion medium is accompanied by a significant increase in the content of residual nitrogen in the blood, by a reduction of the creatinine content in the blood and by an increase of the creatine content of the blood with the simultaneous increase of the excretion of creatinine and creatine with the urine, by a significant increase of the glucose and lactate content in the blood, by the development of acidosis of a respiratory and metabolic character, as well as by a significant increase of the activity of creatine phosphokinase and the isoenzyme fraction of lactate dehydrogenase3. In all the subjects, an expressed intensification of the glucocorticoid and androgenic functions of the adrenal cortex is noted during the experimental period.