IF You are just like many people, you find it more difficult and harder in the stomach climate change – literally. A warming world leads to all kinds of health problems, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disordersaggravation of lung conditions such as asthma and COPD, and Mental health problems Including depression and fear. However, climate change is increasingly involved in a number of intestine diseases, such as diarrhea diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, intestinal infection and more. Although the mechanism behind the increase in lung disease in a warmer world is more or less direct – hot, dirty, dirty air is not good for a person’s lungs – the intestinal connection is more nuanced and multifactorial, in which crop growth, contaminated water stocks, droughts, heating and the microbiom are involved. None of this is good for us; Everything can influence us all. This is what you need to know about the climate connection.
How high temperatures directly influence the intestine
The body is a beautifully balanced system. We work optimally at 98.6 ° F; Push us to only 99 ° F and we are already starting to feel unwell. It is no wonder that if the planet runs fever, we will pay a price. “Higher temperatures can increase stress hormones in the body, and that really influences intestinal physiology,” says Elena Litchman, professor in aquatic ecology at Michigan State University.
The most important stress hormone is cortisolIt is produced by the adrenal gland. Cortisol influences several parts of the body, but can have a particularly powerful impact in the intestine, that is lean with Immune system cells; epithelial cells that form a barrier between the intestines and the rest of the body; And Enteroendocrine Cells that help regulate the hormonal environment of the intestine. All these cells have cortisol receptors, and they can all be disrupted if the cortisol levels climb too high. Cortisol can also accelerate or delay time that is required before food makes through the intestines, which can lead to what is known as dysbiosis– or an imbalance in the number, type and distribution of the trillion bacteria, viruses and fungi that the files microbiome Inhabiting the digestive tract.
High temperatures are also known to increase the permeability of the intestinal wall, leading to so -called leaking intestine. “Temperature has a direct effect on the intestines,” says Desmond Leddin, professor of medicine at Dalhousie University in Canada. “One of the causes of heat disability It is thought that it relates to the permeability of the intestine. “
Leaking intestine can also make organisms possible that are part of the intestinal microbioma – that is necessary to stay In the intestines – to migrate to the bloodstream and spread infection. In the meantime, the microbes that remain behind can be completely out of balance.
“When the connections [in the intestinal lining] Get less tight, you can get more oxygen in the intestine, “says Litchman.” This can stimulate bacteria or other intestinal microbes that are not necessarily favorable. “
The microbiome in you and without you
The composition of organisms that live in the intestines is also influenced in other ways by climate change. It is not only people and other animals who have a microbiome; Soil, air and water do that too, and higher ambient temperatures can cause less useful microbes – including Listeria” And. ColiAnd Shigella– To thrive there. What is in the external environment quickly becomes part of your internal.
“Soil is a big source of microbes in the intestine,” says Litchen. “The microbes are in food, they come to our skin, you can even breathe in the soil microbiome in the form of dust.”
In the West and the rest of the developed world, that is less a problem, because in those richer countries people eat more processed food that is further removed from the ground it has produced. When developing, often agricultural countries it is a different matter. “People in those parts of the world are in further contact with environmental chrobiomas,” says Litchen.
“There is definitely a shifting pattern in global digestion,” says Leddin. “Of particular importance are the inflammatory bowel diseases – Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Crohn’s was relatively unusual in countries with a lower income, but now it becomes more a problem.”
Water is worried. High temperatures can increase the concentration of pathogens in the water, at the same time we drink more to offer the heat, which increases exposure to unhealthy insects. “It’s actually a kind of positive feedback,” says Litchen. In the meantime, if we don’t drink enough when it’s hot, we can suffer from dehydration, which has implications ourselves.
“When we have dried out, blood is shifted from muscles and the intestine to the vital organs, especially the brain and the heart,” says Eamonn Quigley, chairman of gastrointestinal health in Hospital methodist in Houston. “This is not good for the gastrointestinal tract, that starts to suffer.” Digestive symptoms associated with dehydration include Stomach pain and cramps” constipationAnd Delayed digestion and absorption of nutrients.
Climate change can also lead to floods, which has a direct domino effect in the intestine. As Leddin wrote in one 2024 paper in Gastro Hep ProgressFloods can infect groundwater Rotavirus” Cryptosporidium” CampylobacterAnd Yersinia. That touches the developing world harder than the developed. In 2004, for example, floods in Bangladesh resulted in 350,000 cases of diarrhea disease. But even in rich countries there is a real risk. In the US, 23 million households on private wells trust their water supply – Nines that can easily be polluted during flooding.
The role of diet
As much as everything, it is what is on your menu that is most affected on your intestinal health, and climate change plays a major role in what you eat – even if you don’t realize it. To start with, higher temperatures can lead to faster growing crops. “That sounds good,” says Leddin, “but because they grow faster, they may have a lower nutritional value.”
What is more, as Litchen reported in one 2025 Paper in The Lancet Planetary HealthTemperatures of more than 86 ° F can reduce the levels of useful antioxidants in foodstuffs, while the absorption of environmental rescues is increased by rice plants, both of which have a negative influence on intestinal microbiome. Higher levels of carbon dioxide can reduce levels of zinc, iron and proteins in wheat, rice and corn, which could lead to 100 million people becoming more protein deficient and 200 million more zinc deficiency in 2050. Higher oceant temperatures can also be the availability of fish and sea-pumps, the in-terms-pumping, in-in-terms of the fittings, in-terms of the fitty low and middle-income countries.
“There is a phenomenon called” Hidden Hunger, “says Litchen.” In short, it means that you consume the same amount of food, but the food quality food changes. There are fewer nutrients and the food is more difficult to digest. “
Direct hunger – just not enough to eat, whether the food is of high quality or not – is also increasing care as an overheated climate and extremely weather caused, often in subordinated parts of the world. “As more areas of the world become inhospitable for agriculture, the problem only gets bigger,” says Quigley. “There is a very nice correlation between the diversity of your diet and the diversity of your microbiome, and in terms of the intestine, diversity is a good thing.”
If climate change is resolved at all, nobody pretends it will be resolved quickly. Last year was the hottest on recordThe relocation of 2023, which had briefly kept that distinction, and over the past decade represents the most popular 10 years ever. The planet suffers in hands – and increasingly our own health is.
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