Heat Waves May Age Your Body Faster, New Study Suggests
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Heating Up: If you’ve been feeling anxious about heatwaves recently, we’re sorry to report that a new study suggests that heatwaves may age your body faster.
The Study: Repeated heat-wave exposure may accelerate biological aging, potentially by disrupting metabolism. Researchers analyzed data from 2,318 adults in China, with an average age of 58.7, using health measurements collected from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. They compared participants’ exposure to heat waves with changes in their biological age, using biomarkers like cholesterol and HbA1c.
The more heat waves people experienced, the greater their biological age acceleration. Under the study’s definition — a heat wave lasting at least four days with temperatures above the local 97.5th percentile — each additional heat-wave event was associated with about six months of biological aging. This echoes the findings in an earlier study published in Nature Climate Change in 2025, which followed 24,922 adults in Taiwan from 2008 to 2022.
Takeaway: It’s hot out there, and that might be bad for our bodies. It’s possible that “heat training” can help us adapt to increasingly severe weather, but it’s also important to take steps to stay cool and hydrated each day.
Keep In Mind: Other factors, like body size and geographic location, also influenced the rate of biological aging, so heat may not be the only thing to blame.
