The heat waves grow old as much as smoking or alcohol consumption show a study done on 25,000 people
Heat. Photo: Inquam Photos / Mălina Norocea
Exposure to high temperatures can cause lasting damage on health, a study published by Nature Climate Change magazine shows and quoted by The Guardian.
The researchers analyzed 25,000 people from Taiwan for 15 years and compared their exposure to the heat waves with their biological age.
According to the study, the biological age increased by approximately 9 days in people who were exposed to four additional days of heat in a period of two years.
In contrast, people who usually spend more time in the sun have been significantly affected, their biological age increasing by 33 days, in the same period of time.
And, although an aging with nine, respectively 33 days, may seem insissis, scientists point out that it came after only two years of exposure to the heat.
The total impact on populations around the world can be even more significant, because all people suffer during heat waves, and when the biological age increases, increases the risk of death.
“Many of us have experienced heat waves and escaped without consequences – or at least I thought,” commented the study Professor Paul Beggs of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
A greater danger than it seems
The doctor who led the study, CUI Guo of the University of Hong Kong, warns that the impact on health can be greater than the one reported by the study, if exposure to heat waves “It has accumulated for several decades.”
It is not fully known why high temperatures lead to faster aging, but DNA damage may be part of the explanation.
He added that “The heat waves also become more and more common and last longer, so that the effects on health could be much more serious (in the future).”
In Europe, in 2023, there were more than 47,000 deaths in Europe due to heat, an article published by Le Monde shows. In Romania, in the same year there were 2,500 deaths associated with heat, writes Euronews Romania.
At the same time, in Romania, the number of hot days has registered a dramatic increase. Hotnews has analyzed the data from 23 cities and showed how the number of hot days in Romania has evolved over the last 40 years. See the interactive maps with the evolution of the number of days of +35 Celsius.
