Feel The Heat: Extreme Heat Events Are Going To Get Worse

While there may be some who still insist that climate change isn’t real, no one can credibly deny that heat waves are becoming more persistent and more intense as time goes by. Even the CDC admits that “Climate projections indicate that extreme heat events will become more frequent and intense in coming decades,” leading to more deaths directly caused by the heat, and indirectly as a contributing factor for such chronic conditions as heart disease, respiratory disease, and neurological disease. A recent poll shared by Axios underscores that more and more of us across the country are being affected by these intense heat waves, with the impact felt across a range of issues, including higher electric bills, curtailed outdoor activities, difficulty sleeping, and problems with pets. If you want to obtain updates about heat in your vicinity and track local health outcomes and locate local resources, the CDC has a regional Heat & Health Tracker you can access here.

New research reports that the heat is not only an annoyance with daily negative consequences, but it also may be a factor in accelerating our biological aging. According to a new study published in Cyborg and Bionic Systems, heatwave exposure has been consistently linked with higher levels of cholesterol and blood sugar, which are markers for biological aging. Each additional heatwave a person has been exposed to may accelerate biological aging up to half a year faster than would have been expected. So it appears that repeated exposures to extreme heat may be responsible for speeding up your biological aging. Those with higher weight or obesity appear to be more affected. And older adults are especially vulnerable due to more difficulty regulating their body temperature and less physiological and cognitive reserve.

Stanford University has also done research looking into the effects of soaring heat on the health of older adults. Through the development of an app, they have been able to detect a correlation between extreme heat and restricted movement outside of the home. Published in Innovations in Aging, this research has important implications because if social engagement is reduced, exercise is limited, or opportunities outside the home are diminished, this may have serious implications for healthy aging among older adults. According to this study, movement among older adults began to be restricted once temperatures reached 84 degrees F, a temperature easily eclipsed these days during a heat wave. Less movement and less exercise may also exacerbate muscle loss and stiffer joints in older adults, leading to an increase in chronic pain associated with heat extremes.

What’s perhaps even more distressing is that things may be getting worse for the remainder of this year and into 2027. You may have heard of El Niño, the climate event now forming that will fuel more extreme weather events, including extreme heat and drought around the world. From now on into 2027, the weather around the world may become more intense and unpredictable, as temperatures rise, drought damages crops, and fires ignite due to heat and drought. As The Washington Post has remarked, the consequences of this year’s El Niño will be a preview of what life- and weather- will be like in the late 2030s. It’s also important to note that AI Data Centers, increasingly prevalent in the US, are known as “heat islands,” which can raise the temperature in the land around them by up to 16 degrees F.

Is there anything you can do to meet today’s weather extremes, much less what’s to come? As aging populations bump up against increasingly intense weather events, efforts need to happen on the state and federal levels, including increasing funds for air conditioning and house improvements, planting more trees and providing other public health benefits, and recognizing the vulnerabilities of older adults to extreme weather events. On an individual level, however, there are small things you can do to help you “weather” these extremes. For example, Phil Moeler, who writes the Substack Aging in America, has recommended that you stay “socially connected,” by which he means always keep your cell phone charged, have on hand a portable battery as back-up in case you lose power, and develop a phone tree to make sure you, your friends and loved ones all can keep track of each other. The Guardian recently published a list of recommendations for how to survive the heat by those who have lived and survived extended heat events, including such common sense advice as frequently drinking water, regardless of your level of thirst, keeping yourself damp or wet, especially on your neck, wrist or forehead, wrapping crushed ice in a towel and draping it around your neck, taking frequent warm (not cold) showers to allow your body to gradually cool down and wearing flowy loose garments that allow air to move through the material. If you detect a theme involving water and ice, you’d be wise to watch this recent short documentary from The New York Times, exploring the measures used by emergency personnel in Phoenix, which often sees temperatures rise above 110 degrees F. Facing a confluence of factors including drug use, homelessness, and heat extremes, Phoenix firemen and other emergency personnel use bags of ice to cover and enclose those suffering from extreme heat to keep them alive until they can get to an emergency room. It may seem simple, almost primal, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and we are certainly heading toward desperate times.