Study: Living Through Heat Waves Can Make Humans Age Faster

Living in extreme heat can lead to all sorts of health problems. It can also worsen existing illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. And it can make people age faster, a new study has found. 

The study found that ongoing heat waves can increase a person’s biological age. They found it mirrored the aging effects of smoking or drinking alcohol. The study appeared in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

Researchers studied 15 years of data from 24,922 patients in Taiwan. They found that living for two years through heat waves can speed up a person’s biological clock. The amount of the increase: 12 days. 

That might not seem like much. But it builds up over a time, they said. 

“This small number actually matters,” Cui Guo told The New York Times. “This was a study of a two-year exposure, but we know heat waves have actually (occurred) for decades.” Guo led the study. She is also a University of Hong Kong health professor.

Heat waves are already known to spike early deaths from heat stroke, ischemia, and other short-term problems. The study is among the first to measure the long-term effects of exposure to extreme heat over time. 

The study found that those who work outside and people living in rural areas had the most serious health impacts from heat. That's likely because they tend to have less access to air conditioning. The researchers relied on medical test results to assign a biological age for each subject. Those included cholesterol, blood pressure, and organ function tests.

The study had one possible small upside, however. Researchers found that the heat impacts the subjects had endured had lessened over time. That suggested that the subjects had taken steps to cope with extreme heat.   

Reflect: What are some changes you think people can make in their daily lives to stay healthy when the environment or weather becomes more extreme?