United States: According to experts, sustained exposure to heat not only contributes to tiredness and decreased cheerfulness but also – accelerated aging.
More about the findings
Heats that accumulate repeatedly modify our epigenetic processes – which determine cell-level gene expression changes under environmental stress.
Research from American laboratories now investigates the critical effects of excessive heat exposure on human bodies.
The findings are concerning. Participating subjects showed accelerated aging in correlation with the length of time they spent in heat exposure. Extremely hot conditions caused aging to progress more rapidly among older individuals by two years or longer.
More heat exposure during climate change will result in the human body aging at a faster rate because our bodies react to these heat stresses.
This information holds critical relevance for Australia because the country predicts its heat waves will increase both in frequency and intensity under climate change.
Aging effect by heat
Aging is natural. Everyone ages differently since aging happens at unique speeds among human beings.
The body experiences two types of impact from stresses and shocks that occur throughout our life journey.
A lack of regular sleep throughout several months will result in accelerated aging processes. Heat causes direct sickness and death but additionally creates a slow-lasting chain of negative effects.
Long-term exposure to heat creates problems in our body functions, which reduce our capability to maintain all our vital life processes.
When we state that something accelerates biological aging, we refer to this process. Such deterioration generally happens prior to the eventual development of diseases and disabilities.
The genetic changes that result from this state appear differently at the cellular level.
Is there any genetic change involved?
DNA remains constant, yet cells have the ability to turn thousands of genetic elements both on and off during times of stress.
The active genes inside cells represent a minimal fraction of their entire genome since the other genes stay inactive. This is known as epigenetics.
The most frequent and well-understood process in this field is DNA methylation (DNAm). The cells use methylation to block DNA sequences, so they will not activate and create proteins that function in various ways.
The changes in DNA methylation affect protein production levels, and these molecular alterations impact both body functions and health status. This can be both bad and good.
Heat stress modifies gene expression levels, so the brain reveals new patterns that lead to changes in aging rates.