Heat waves don’t just cause acute damage to people: US researchers have also found evidence that extreme temperatures also accelerate biological aging.
“Heat is known to tax the heart and kidneys and slow cognitive abilities. “But extreme heat can also have effects that are – at least initially – invisible,” “Nature” author Heidi Ledford wrote in the accompanying study. This was recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Gerontology (Aging Research) in Seattle.
“The physical consequences may not be immediately apparent as a visible health consequence, but can affect our bodies at the cellular and molecular level,” said study co-author Eun Young Choi, a gerontologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “And this biological decline could later develop into a disability.”
DNA methylation patterns characteristic of biological age
The scientists used the so-called ‘epigenetic clock’ as a benchmark. That’s a whole bunch of chemical changes in people’s DNA that add up as they age. In particular, it concerns methylation, i.e. the attachment of methyl groups to certain parts of the genome. “The pattern of DNA methylation, a specific epigenetic mark, changes in aging cells. The epigenetic clock can be used to determine the biological age of a person (…),” according to Germany’s Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Aging.
The American scientists now analyzed the ‘epigenetic clock’ of approximately 3,800 people aged 56 and older. “They then compared this data with temperature maps of the United States, looking for correlations between the status of the molecular markers and the number of days in different periods when the heat index – a measure of perceived temperature that takes into account both heat and humidity.” – exceeded 26.7 degrees Celsius or 32.2 degrees Celsius at the participant’s location,” Nature said.
Ten percent more warm days – 0.12 years biologically ‘older’
It was found that people who lived in a very hot region within a year or within six years appeared “older” due to their epigenetic marks than people who had not experienced these heat experiences. “Measuredly, every 10 percent increase in the number of hot days increased the molecular age of the participants by 0.12 years. Analysis of another group of molecular markers showed that people living in warm regions aged up to 0.6 percent faster. However, shorter heat exposure within a range of days or months did not correlate with differences in these markers,” wrote Nature author Heide Ledford.
“This is a remarkable result,” explains Danish environmental epidemiologist Rina So (University of Copenhagen). For the first time, such research would have used biological markers from the blood instead of simply linking deaths or diseases to climate influences. The American researchers statically balanced other possible influencing factors, such as social stress, other environmental influences, pregnancies and additional health factors.
Source: Krone
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