Pirate's Cove

Man, the doomsday cult has really been working overtime lately to come up with some scary new stuff

Heatwaves are making people age faster, study warns

Repeated exposure to heatwaves, which are growing more frequent due to climate change, may accelerate ageing, particularly among manual workers, a new study warns.

Although previous research showed heatwaves had negative effects on the health of older people, it primarily focused on short-term exposure to sustained heat. The new study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, assessed the potential long-term impact of heatwaves on health and ageing.

Researchers analysed data from 24,922 adult people in Taiwan with an average biological age of 46 years to assess how heatwaves influenced ageing.

They defined rapid ageing as the difference between biological and actual age and assessed its association with heatwave exposure.

Biological age is a measure of how well the human body functions at the molecular and organ levels compared to its chronological age based on the birthdate.

By analysing patient data from 2008 to 2022, the researchers found an increase in cumulative heatwave exposure was associated with a rise in age acceleration.

The findings suggest people living in places that experience more days of high heat show greater biological ageing on average than those in cooler regions.

Um, it’s not like there’s a massive variation in the climate areas of Taiwan, right? It’s all so tiresome.