Define Nutritional Requirements for Extreme Environments?

Human beings have been able to survive and work under extreme environments of almost all regions of the earth, from poles to equator and also in space. Some of these places are visited for very brief periods due to inhospitable environment. An extreme environment can be defined as are environment where basic needs, like acquisition of food, shelter and protection, require extraordinary efforts. One important feature of these environments is that an error in judgment and behaviour can have serious, even fatal consequences. These environments can be natural, as well as, man-made and are listed in the Table.

When faced with hot, cold, high altitude (terrestrial heights above 2700 meters) or space environments, human beings either try to modify the microenvironment   accordingly or physiologically adapt themselves to fit the environments or use a combination of these two strategies. Let us review these adaptive mechanisms.