Fast Company, Yahoo and others (via The Conversation) ran an op-ed by Eunyoung Choi discussing her recent study with Jennifer Ailshire, which found that extreme heat may silently accelerate biological aging at the molecular level, with effects comparable to smoking and heavy alcohol consumption.

“This link between biological age and extreme heat remained even after accounting for a wide range of individual and community factors such as physical activity levels and socioeconomic status. This means that even among people with similar lifestyles, those living in hotter environments may still be aging faster at the biological level,” Choi wrote. “Even more surprising was the magnitude of the effect – extreme heat has a comparable impact on speeding up aging as smoking and heavy alcohol consumption. This suggests that heat exposure may be silently accelerating aging, at a level on par with other major known environmental and lifestyle stressors.”