Tim
#1
I’ve always hated the heat, which makes me feel like I’m dying. Apparently this feeling is more than an exaggeration. According to the NYT, which reports on a new paper in ScienceAdvances, living in extreme heat–defined as temperatures over 90 degrees for 140 days per year–can alter a person’s DNA and cause aging to accelerate on the molecular level.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr0616
6 Likes
LukeMV
#2
Another reason I need to get out of Florida during the summer. I love it here most of the year but it’s instant sweat the second I leave home from June-mid September
2 Likes
I grew up in south Florida. I love the heat. I hate the cold. I’m sitting in a sauna right now. Ahhhh.
2 Likes
Ray1
#4
How much is just r selection vs k selection?
Tiny Key deer vs Canadian moose, etc.
Seems like there are many confounding factors. Does that control for socioeconomic status? Does that mean that most people get older faster in the summer ?
1 Like
Tim
#6
Most people in Florida, Texas, and AZ have climate control, but most is not all. I can’t think of a more excruciating death than from prolonged exposure to the sun.
LukeMV
#7
Excess sun damage or dehydration (from too much heat) maybe to blame?
For thos of us on metric, that’s only 32 degrees celcius.
2 Likes
Tim
#9
Roughly, multiply by two and add 32.
Hong Kong is as warm as Florida and has the highest life expectancy in the world. I doubt temperature matters much.
Although we do have very strong AC, so it may be true…
7 Likes
Seems like you can show anything you want using these clocks, which makes them useless at best.
6 Likes
Tim
#12
I’ve known a number of creatures like you who luxuriate in the most torrid of climates that would be most torturous to me. I just saw a bit on YouTube about the constant churn of people in and out of The Villages retirement community. Northerners who migrate there are often disillusioned by the incessant humidity, not to mention all the bugs.
1 Like
Bugs are a real issue. I grew up in Florida. The advice from the old timers was to ignore the mosquitos…they won’t take much. The weird thing is it was good advice.
The humidity is just a matter of adaptation, which doesn’t happen in air conditioning.
I’m not sure where the weather is good all year, but California is my best guess. But CA has other problems.
Tim
#14
Yes, California is glorious, but the zones of interest are shrinking. Maybe New Zealand is an option.
1 Like
To my mind, all this study does is raise the very important question of what do epigenetic markers and biological clocks really tell us. I used to be very excited about the Horvarth clock but the longer I look at it the less I think it has to do with aging.
In this study they reference mouse research showing that mice exposed to heat display increased methylated DNA. The important question is does this methylation translate to an accelerated aging or does methylated DNA mean something else. When I search for studies to see whether living in a hot or a cold environment accelerates aging and death in mice, there doesn’t seem to be any useful result - the mice tend to adapt to the environment. This is exactly what Conrad Washington showed in his 1950 studies on flies - expose them to heat and you will cause epigenetic changes that over time will allow the fly to adapt to its environment.
The likes of Sinclair have indeed shown that if one damages the DNA, the cell will display this as epigenetic methylation. However one could argue that the methylation is just a marker to the p53 cell repair team to come and repair that DNA or destroy the cell. It is not necessarily a sign of aging , just a sign of activity and repair.
If exposure to heat really was so damaging then sauna use should not have a 40% decrease in all cause mortality.
Perhaps in support of this study the term hormesis comes in to play - where short exposures to heat may activate heat shock proteins and a cascade of benefits but chronic heat exposure may not allow sufficient repair and recovery of the epigenetic damage.
2 Likes
brand
#16
I was in Miami briefly in the summer and had trouble breathing. Humidity (high dew point) highly unpleasant.
2 Likes
Beth
#17
Ha, I went to college in Miami and when I showed up in August, I said what the heck is this watery stuff dripping down my shins??? It was obviously sweat… WTAF!
Then, at 40, I married a Texan. I tried to stick out that inferno for several years. So many people said you just have to be out in it and you’ll adjust. NOPE, never happened. I would feel faint. Some lunatic even thought building outdoors malls would be a good idea! I’d almost pass out on the way from Sephora to my favorite lunch spot!
The year I threw in the towel was when we had 69 days in a row over 100 degrees and 100 days total. The days that were not 100 were still over 95! I can see heat could shorten one’s life because I would want to die early! So @Tim, I’m dying right along side you!
On the other hand, my husband would be out there walking the golf course as if it were nothing. I think one is either wired to deal with the heat or you’re not.
2 Likes
LukeMV
#18
That’s where I am. I think I’m going to rent a summer home somewhere else this time around. I can’t deal with it. The weather is incredible now though.
1 Like
Tim
#19
Me too. I suffered through seven years in New Orleans, a seductive but sweltering city where the roaches rule the night.
2 Likes
