Living in extreme heat may speed up aging process in adults 56 and older, USC study suggests

LOS ANGELES -- The results from a recent USC study show that people in a certain age group could age up to an entire year faster living in neighborhoods that have more days of extreme heat.

And we're not just talking about the possibility of some additional wrinkles - this means internal, not just external aging.

Heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, so it's no surprise it can cause incredible stress on our bodies.

This study found a significant correlation between a participant's biological age and their location's heat index chart, showing your body could age faster than the number shown by your birth date due to high heat.

In this study, over 3,500 people ages 56 and older were looked at over the course of several years to determine the health impacts of hot temperatures.

USC Gerontology Professor Jennifer Ailshire, the senior author of this study, says with more extreme heat and climate change, they wanted to better understand heat's impacts to help mitigate negative outcomes.

"As we age, we actually lose our ability to regulate that heat away from our body. Older adults even have different evaporation processes in terms of their skin, because we have skin changes as we as as well. So they're a particularly vulnerable group," she said.

The findings show people in this age group living in areas like Phoenix, or places where temperatures reach 80-90 degrees or hotter for a good portion of the year, could age up to 12-to-14 months faster than someone living in a cooler region.

Now this is modifiable. So the goal is that as we continue to see extreme heat, policy makers or architects keep heat mitigation and age-friendly features in mind as cities' infrastructures continue to be updated over time.

Creating more shade by planting trees along sidewalks or at bus stops would be just one example of a step in the right direction.