A woman drinks water during the heat wave in Hair, France
Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
It appears that the intense heat accelerates biological aging in the elderly, indicating that it can raise the risk of age -related diseases.
“This is one of the first broad -scale studies that link the long -term exposure to the heat of biological aging in humans,” he says. Yun Yong Choi At the University of Southern California. “The elderly who live in areas with more extreme heat days ranging from biological aspects are faster than those in the cooler areas.”
Choi and her colleagues analyzed the genetic data extracted from blood samples collected by other researchers in 2006-7 of 3600 people across the United States. They were all between 56 years old and more at that time.
They estimated the biological age for each participant using three hours of the so -called Bedhi, which involves looking at chemical signs patterns called methyl groups on DNA. These patterns change with our age and these changes are linked to age -related diseases.
The researchers also examined the daily air temperature readings that were taken a few kilometers from the place where the participants lived for six years before taking blood samples.
They found that, over a period of nearly 200 days in a six -year period, participants were exposed to maximum daily temperatures of no less than 32.2 ° C (90 ℉), their biological age was up to 3.5 months, on average, from the cooler areas. This number varies depending on the watch that was used.
“This indicates exposure to heat that increases the speed of biological aging,” he says, “He says,” Austin Argenri At Harvard University, who did not participate in the study.
Previous studies on people in Taiwan and Germany also found a link between severe heat exposure and biological aging.
But the Lagini watches do not completely capture aging or the risk of disease, says Argentieri. “More work that can connect both extreme heat exposure, biological aging from these hours, and the effect of age -related diseases, deaths or age itself, will really help pay what we should take from this.”
What’s more, the study did not explain access to air conditioning or the time the outdoor participants spend, which changes their personal exposure to heat. The team dominated other factors such as age, sex, race, wealth, sweat, smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity and physical activity.
More studies must be explored whether the results are translated into young people, or those who live in different countries where people may have different curricula to keep calm, Argenri says.
He says that determining the exhibition at the risk of aging faster due to the extreme heat can help policy makers to develop and spread measures to protect them.
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