Get Healthy!

Add heat waves to the many health threats facing homeless people.

Last year, the United States had 580,000 homeless people -- 28% of them in California, where seven in 10 live outdoors. That's nearly nine times more than in any other state.

"The same weather that makes living unsheltered possible in California also exposes people experiencing homelessness to a higher risk of a wide ...

Summer can sizzle in the city, but a new report finds urban living is getting hotter than ever before.

The research shows that city dwellers may be suffering from what scientists call an urban ...

Large, simultaneous heat waves have become much more common in northern regions worldwide due to climate change and could have disastrous consequences, researchers warn.

The investigators also found that these concurrent heat waves are becoming larger and hotter.

"More than one heat wave occurring at the same time often has worse societal impacts than a single event," said lead stud...

If you're among the many people who use space heaters and generators during the winter, you need to guard against fire and carbon monoxide (CO) hazards, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says.

In the United States, that's especially true for Black Amer...

Extreme heat brings a jump in emergency room visits by adults of all ages, a new study shows.

While it's well known that extreme heat puts adults aged 65 and older at increased risk of hospitalization and death, it's been less clear how it affects young and middle-aged adults.

To find out, the researchers analyzed the associations between heat and ER visits among more than 74 millio...

Global warming may pose a threat to your kidneys, new research suggests.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from hospitals in more than 1,800 cities in Brazil between 2000 and 2015, and found that just over 7% of all admissions for kidney disease could be attributed to hotter temperatures.

That equates to more than 202,000 cases of kidney disease, according to the report publi...

Climate change is already making Americans sick and researchers warn that the nation must take swift action to protect people's well-being.

"Climate change effects aren't just an abstraction, something that will happen years from now. They are happening today, and they impact every aspect of your health, from the air you breathe [more smoke, more pollen] to the nutritional quality of the ...

You can add obesity and its related health risks to the long list of threats posed by climate change, researchers report.

In a new review, researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia outlined the association between climate change and obesity.

As global temperatures increase, people may become less physically active and less able to burn excess fat, putting them at incr...

Urban dwellers around the globe are sweating through three times as many "extreme heat" days as their counterparts did in the 1980s, a new study suggests.

The study is the latest to chart humans' growing exposure to dangerously high temperatures. Experts said it looked at what's happening in finer detail than previous research has -- and it suggests that exposure to extreme heat is more w...

Climate change is the "single biggest health threat facing humanity," and governments must "act with urgency" to tackle the crisis, a World Health Organization (WHO) special report warns.

In advance of a United Nation's climate change summit in early November, groups representing 45 million nurses, doctors and health professionals worldwide signed an open letter urging action on the clima...

It's not just athletes on the field who suffer when outdoor temperatures get too high. Members of college and high school marching bands are at increased risk of heat-related illness, too, researchers warn.

"They go out there, and they often wear these really heavy wool uniforms," said lead author Andrew Grundstein of the University of Georgia. "They practice many times for hours and hour...

An editorial written jointly by the editors of more than 230 medical journals worldwide has a grim warning for humanity: Climate change is making people sick -- and it's going to get worse.

As reported by CNN, the same global warming that's causing extreme weather events has had a number of negative impacts on human health during the past two decades, the journal editors said. A...

Hotter weather driven by climate change is bad news for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study warns.

Researchers say warming trends could worsen COPD symptoms, such as shortness of breath, wheezing or coughing. Millions of people have COPD, a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis that is often tied to smoking.

"The climate emergency is prov...

Midsummer heat and high humidity aren't just uncomfortable -- they're a combo that can cause serious illness and even death.

"Whenever you walk or do outdoor activity, take a friend with you who can help you if you run into trouble," Dr. Eleanor Dunham advised. She's an emergency medicine doctor at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa.

Babies and seniors...

This summer has brought dangerous, record-breaking heat to parts of the United States and Canada. The hot weather poses an extra challenge for pregnant women.

Mothers-to-be need to stay cool to avoid heat exhaustion and its complications, according to an expert at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston.

"The summer is tough on pregnant women because the body struggles to cool down w...

Extreme heat strikes poor and minority neighborhoods in U.S. cities harder than those that are wealthier and mainly white, a new study finds.

"The distribution of excess urban heat varies within cities, and as a result, communities do not share a city's extreme heat burden equally," said study co-author Jennifer Burney. She's chair of global climate policy and research at the University o...

Climate change has already become deadly enough to cause 5 million extra deaths worldwide each year, researchers report.

"This is the first study to get a global overview of mortality due to non-optimal temperature conditions between 2000 and 2019, the hottest period since the pre-industrial era," said study co-leader Yuming Guo, a professor at Monash University in Australia.

The fi...

On sizzling hot summer days, it's important to guard against heat exhaustion and heat stroke, an expert says.

"Heat stroke occurs when the core temperature of the body reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit and changes in our central nervous system take place, such as disorientation, confusion, behavioral or emotional changes or altered mental status," said Isabel Valdez, a physician assistant an...

Could trees be the key to a cool summer in the city?

Yes, claims new research that calculated just how much greenery can bring temperatures down.

"We've long known that the shade of trees and buildings can provide cooling," said study co-author Jean-Michel Guldmann. He is a professor emeritus of city and regional planning at Ohio State University, in Columbus.

"But now we can...

Human-caused global warming is responsible for more than one-third of heat-related deaths worldwide, but the proportion is much higher in certain countries, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed data gathered between 1991 and 2018 from 732 locations in 43 countries. They concluded that 37% of all heat-related deaths in recent summer periods were attributable to the warming of the planet...

As you head into the great outdoors this summer, keep safety in mind, an expert says.

Drowning is one of summer's risks. It only takes a few seconds and can happen without an obvious struggle, according to Dr. Seth Hawkins, a wilderness medicine expert and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Adults must always closely superv...

Rising temperatures caused by climate change could trigger a worldwide increase in stillbirths, researchers warn.

The team at the University of Queensland in Australia analyzed 12 studies on the subject. They found that exposure to extremely high temperatures throughout pregnancy appeared to increase risk of stillbirth, particularly late in pregnancy.

"Overall, risk of stillbirth ap...

The Middle East and North Africa are already among the hottest spots on the planet, but new research warns that if nothing is done to slow climate change there will be life-threatening heat waves with temperatures of 132 Fahrenheit or higher in those regions.

"Our results for a business-as-usual pathway indicate that, especially in the second half of this century, unprecedented super- an...

Poor neighborhoods in the United States have fewer trees and are hotter than richer neighborhoods, new research shows.

In the study, the researchers assessed tree cover in the 100 largest urban areas of the country.

In nine out of 10 communities, there was less tree cover in low-income areas than in high-income areas. On average, low-income neighborhoods had about 15% less tree cove...

Limiting global warming to targets proposed in the Paris Agreement could keep tropical regions from reaching temperatures that are beyond human tolerability, a new study projects.

Researchers estimate that if countries are able to cap warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the tropics will be spared temperatures that surpass the "survival limit." But life in the worl...

When temperatures rise, people with multiple sclerosis need to keep cool. Heat sensitivity is a hallmark of the central nervous system disorder.

So, what happens when warm weather spikes become more frequent because of climate change?

More MS patients end up in the emergency room. A new study found that during periods of unusually warm weather, they were more likely to visit the eme...

Asphalt baking in the summer sunshine is no fun for tender feet, but a new study suggests it's not doing your lungs any favors either.

As it heats up, asphalt releases chemical compounds that contribute to air pollution. And its emissions double as its temperature increases from 104 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers found.

Sunlight plays a key role in these asphalt emis...