Extreme Heat May Make You Age Faster
Everyone has felt the exhaustion and dehydration that accompany spending too much time in the heat. But research shows that the impact of being exposed to extreme heat goes beyond heat waves: constant exposure to high temperatures could also make you age more quickly.
A new study, published on August 26 in the journal Nature Climate change, have found that repeated exposure to heat waves was linked to accelerated aging and increases vulnerability to health problems. The more extreme heat events to which an individual has been exposed, the more his bodies aged.
The researchers analyzed medical data of nearly 25,000 people in Taiwan in 15 years: between 2008 and 2022, when the region experienced 30 waves of heat (defined by researchers as a “period of high temperature over several days”). They were able to calculate the biological age of a person using the results of several medical tests, including the evaluations of the function of the liver, the lungs and the kidneys; blood pressure; and inflammation. They then used participants’ addresses during the two years before their medical visit to compare their organic age at the temperatures to which they were probably exposed.
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They found that the more extremely extreme heat events of a person have endured, the faster they aged, with each additional 1.3 ° C total cumulative heat adding about eight to twelve days at their biological age. Manual workers and those who live in rural areas have experienced the most important health impacts.
“Although the number itself may seem small, over time and between populations, this effect can have significant implications for public health,” said Cui Guo, the main author of the study and environmental epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, Nature.
Climate change makes extreme heat events more common in the world. 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded, exceeding the record established in 2023. A central climate study revealed that 88% of the 247 major American cities have increased in the extremely hot number of days since 1970.
Climate models show that global temperatures will only increase, the global meteorological organization estimating 70% that the average warming at five years from 2025 to 2029 is greater than 1.5 ° C. The creation of solutions to combat extreme heat will no longer become imperative as temperatures increase, according to experts.
