Although many retirees move to warmer climates for retirement, a new study from USC Leonard shows that extreme heat may speed up the aging process in older people, SWNS reported.
People living in areas with more days of hot weather appear to age faster at a molecular level than residents of cooler regions, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances.
The effect was shown to accelerate “biological aging,” the researchers found, raising new concerns about how it could affect long-term health.
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While chronological age is based on birthdate, biological age is measured by how well the body functions at the molecular level, according to the National Institute on Aging.
Having a biological age greater than your chronological age is associated with a higher risk of disease and death.
Likewise, extreme heat (categorized as 90 degrees Fahrenheit and above) has long been associated with health issues, including increased risk of death, the SWNS report stated.
In the study, senior author Jennifer Ailshire (professor of gerontology and sociology at the USC Leonard Davis School) and co-author Eunyoung Choi (a USC Leonard Davis postdoctoral scholar) examined how biological age changed over a six-year period in thousands of U.S. participants, all aged 56 and older.
Blood samples taken at various points were analyzed for certain changes — called “epigenetic changes” — in how individual genes are turned “on or off,” the press release stated.
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The research team used mathematical tools called “epigenetic clocks” to analyze these patterns and estimate biological ages, as SWNS reported.
They then compared older participants’ changes in biological age to their locations’ heat index history and number of heat days reported by the National Weather Service from 2010 to 2016.
The analysis revealed a “significant correlation” between areas with more days of extreme heat and individuals experiencing greater increases in biological age, even after adjusting for other factors.
“Participants living in areas where heat days — defined as 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher — occur half the year, such as Phoenix, Arizona, experienced up to 14 months of additional biological aging compared to those living in areas with fewer than 10 heat days per year,” said Choi in a press release.
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The study used heat index, rather than just air temperature, to take relative humidity into account, Ailshire noted in the release.
“It’s really about the combination of heat and humidity,” said Ailshire.
“Particularly for older adults, because [they] don’t sweat the same way. We start to lose our ability to have the skin-cooling effect that comes from that evaporation of sweat.”
Dr. Chris Scuderi, a family physician based in Jacksonville, Florida, spoke to Fox News Digital about what he has noticed regarding heat and aging in his field.
“I’ve observed a notable rise in hospitalizations and heat-related incidents among older adults, particularly during last summer’s record-breaking temperatures in Northeast [Florida],” said Scuderi, who was not involved in the study.
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Certain medications, such as antidepressants and heart medications like beta blockers, can further impair the body’s ability to regulate temperature, which increases the likelihood of heat-related illness, according to the doctor.
Some chronic health conditions can also change the body’s normal reaction to heat, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website states.
Scuderi offered a few tips to help people beat the heat.
Those include scheduling outdoor activities during cooler parts of the day, maintaining proper hydration, and checking all medications with a family physician to identify any potential issues.
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Another tip from the CDC is to drink water before feeling the sensation of thirst.
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“If your doctor limits the amount of fluids you drink or has you on water pills, ask them how much you should drink during hot weather,” the website recommends.
Next steps for the research team will be to determine what other factors could make someone more vulnerable to heat-related biological aging and how it might connect to health.
In the meantime, Ailshire noted that the findings could prompt policymakers, architects and others to keep heat mitigation and age-friendly features in mind as they update urban infrastructure, such as building bus stops with shaded areas, planting more trees and increasing urban green spaces.
