Extreme heat speeds up aging as much as smoking and alcohol consumption, reveals study

If you think extreme heat only makes you feel exhausted and sweaty, a new study will extremely change your beliefs. It has been known that extreme heat raises the risk of heat stroke, cardiovascular disease, kidney diseases and more. Any change in the environment can put pressure on the body and affect its functioning.However, there has been limited research on how environmental stressors influence aging. Now a study published in the journal Science Advances has explored how heat affects biological aging, leading to gradual deterioration of cells and tissues and increasing the risk of age-related diseases. The researchers examined blood samples from over 3,600 older adults across the United States. They measured the participant's biological age using epigenetic clocks that capture DNA modification patterns that change with increasing age.DNA modification or methylation refers to chemical modifications in the DNA that regulate the activeness of genes. Environmental factors can influence this regulation and change how genes function, thus affecting aging and disease risk over time.Results of the research on animal models showed that extreme heat triggered maladaptive epigenetic memory or lasting changes in DNA methylation patterns. A single episode of extreme heat can lead to long-term changes in DNA methylation across different tissue types in mice.In order to analyse the effects of long periods of extreme heat on people, the researchers linked the epigenetic clock data with climate records to assess whether people residing in hot environments showed faster biological aging.Here, the results stated that older adults residing in areas with frequent hot days presented significantly faster epigenetic aging compared to those who lived in cooler areas. This link between biological age and extreme heat remained constant after analysing various individual and community factors such as physical activity levels and socioeconomic status.Participants living in locations with at least 140 extreme heat days annually (classified as heat days exceeding the index of 90 degrees Fahrenheit), experienced up to 14 months of additional aging compared to those who lived in areas with fewer than 10 such days annually.A key note here is that extreme heat can speed up biological aging as much as smoking and heavy alcohol consumption.