How extreme heat impacts our mental health

EMILY BRIGHT: This is Minnesota Now. I'm Emily Bright in for Cathy Wurzer. It is supposed to reach 90 degrees across Southern and Western Minnesota today, as well as for the metro area. That's plenty hot.

But that's just the start of some seriously warm summer weather. The heat index is expected to reach 100 to 105 for Southern Minnesota midweek. And that is just below the excessive heat definition.

Does that idea leave you feeling sluggish or maybe a little overwhelmed? Well, you're not alone. Psychiatric studies showed that extreme heat can have a negative effect on mental health. So we thought, here in Minnesota, we might need a little support handling the hot weather this week.

So Dr. Kristi White is here. She is a clinical health psychologist and professor at the University of Minnesota. Dr. White, thanks for being here.

KRISTI WHITE: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

EMILY BRIGHT: So tell me more about what exactly extreme heat does to our emotions. I mean, what's common for folks to feel when it's really hot out?

KRISTI WHITE: Yeah, such a great question-- one of the things that we know is that extreme heat really exacerbates mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. We can also feel more irritable. And from a behavioral perspective, hotter temperatures are also associated with changes in behavior, such as increases in violence, aggression, and impulsivity.

EMILY BRIGHT: OK. Well, what if you're staying inside all day in an air-conditioned room? Does that help with those difficult feelings?

KRISTI WHITE: Oh, so that is such a great question. So while cooling off and reducing our exposure to the extreme heat can certainly help, especially during these heat waves and when we're experiencing the intense impact of this extreme heat, staying inside all the time can pose its own problems. So there's a lot of good data showing that connecting with nature has restorative benefits and is good for our mental and physical health, as well as our cognition or our ability to think.

So when our access to nature is restricted because of extreme heat or other environmental conditions, it can create other concerns. So we definitely don't want people stuck inside all the time. But seeking some reprieve in an air-conditioned room can certainly be helpful. But what do you do with that time is also really important.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yes. Yeah, definitely, that would make a big difference. And you mentioned other conditions. I mean, my goodness, along with this heat wave, we've seen this just unusual amount of wildfire smoke and poor air quality days.

I know, anecdotally, that does affect people's moods. And it can also contribute to just anxiety about the climate. So have you seen people affected by air quality, smoke, et cetera?

KRISTI WHITE: Yeah, absolutely. This has been top of mind for so many patients recently. Many people with lung conditions, such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, COPD, lung cancer, those who have had lung transplants, and others have been significantly impacted by the smoke recently. And even those who don't have pulmonary illnesses can be impacted by the poor air quality. So if it's hard to breathe or you have restricted lung capacity, you're definitely going to be experiencing the impact of the poor air quality, which can contribute to anxiety about your health.

So as a clinical health psychologist, I treat patients for their emotional, and psychological, and behavioral health concerns within the context of health conditions and managing chronic illness. And so this is definitely something that a lot of my patients have been bringing up lately around the anxiety about being outside and being exposed to the poor air quality within the context of their health conditions. And even the patients who don't have pulmonary illnesses have also been reporting some of the anxiety concerns that you mentioned about the poor air quality. It's affecting all of us.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, I mean, if going outside for a walk is kind of your go-to stress reliever and then you feel like that's not an option for you, I imagine that can be a real challenge.

KRISTI WHITE: Right. Right, absolutely. There's actually this term within the climate psychology area called solastalgia. And it's sort of this idea of almost like a climate related grief or sort of nostalgia but while you're directly connected to the environment. And it's this idea that, when we are experiencing the impact of climate change and these extreme weather events, and we're connected to the environment, we can almost feel a sense of grief or loss when we aren't able to access the restorative benefits that nature once gave us or when we're no longer able to participate in some beloved activities that once gave us a sense of stress relief.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, that is a very real thing. What's that term again?

KRISTI WHITE: Solastalgia.

EMILY BRIGHT: I like that. So I'm curious, can a heat wave increase the likelihood of a serious mental health issue that maybe wasn't present in a patient before?

KRISTI WHITE: Oh, that's a really great question. So we do see that extreme heat is connected with worsening mental health symptoms, like mood concerns, anxiety, psychotic symptoms, which I mentioned before. And we see a relationship between extreme heat, and suicide risk, and psychiatric hospitalizations, as well.

And we also know that hotter temperatures are really disruptive to sleep, which is incredibly important for emotion and stress regulation. So we need more research to better understand how heat kind of exerts its effects on our emotional and behavioral health. But we do see this connection between extreme heat and worsening mental health symptoms and some of the behavioral symptoms that I mentioned before about aggression and impulsivity, even in those without mental health conditions.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. Who is most affected psychologically by extreme heat?

KRISTI WHITE: Oh, this is really interesting. So when we think about the impacts of extreme heat and climate change, it affects all of us. So it's universal. But it's also really personal and affects us all in different ways, depending on our situation and context. So individuals that are exposed to heat at a greater rate, such as outdoor workers, communities that have been subjected to marginalization, such as those who have been restricted to red-line communities and experience more of the urban heat island effect, people with chronic illnesses that are at greater risk of heat-related illnesses, and people with mental health conditions-- also, some people who are taking certain medications that affect the body's ability to regulate its temperature are those who tend to be the most impacted by extreme heat.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. Those are all really good reminders. I just learned that recently, that certain medications can affect how you react to the heat. So I guess, if you're taking a medicine that you weren't on last summer especially, maybe read some of those details to see if the heat might affect you more because of that.

KRISTI WHITE: Yeah, absolutely. Definitely talk with your doctor about this. So we know that heat-related hospitalizations have been associated with taking certain psychotropic medications, like anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, antipsychotics. And the current thinking is that these medications may actually impair the body's ability to thermoregulate or to regulate its temperature.

And so the data is still a bit unclear. And we need more research to kind of better understand the mechanisms and sort of why that increased risk is there for people taking these medications. But it's definitely important to talk with your physician and your doctor who's prescribing these medications to come up with a heat plan if you are at greater risk of some of the impacts because of the medications that you're taking.

EMILY BRIGHT: Well, my last question for you, it's a big one. How can we take care of our mental health during a heat wave?

KRISTI WHITE: Such a great question. So I would say, from the individual all the way through the systemic level, where we've got lots of things that we really need to do and focus on-- so as an individual, cool down. Protect your sleep. Regulate your stress.

Have a heat safety plan that includes knowing the warning signs, making accommodations for medications. So not only, as I mentioned before, talking with your doctor about a heat safety plan, but if you are taking medications that require refrigeration or cooler temperatures and you have restricted access to cooling resources, make a plan for how you're going to keep your medications cool if you're able to. Limit your exposure. Enlist support, including your community and your doctor-- so making sure that people in your community know that you may be more vulnerable to the impacts of heat. Really taking care of each other and having a community-oriented approach is really important.

And then we also need to invest in systemic interventions and ensure everyone has access to things like tree canopy, shade, cooling options. There was actually one recent study that found that trees cool land surface temperatures by as much as 12 degrees Celsius, which is over 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

EMILY BRIGHT: Wow.

KRISTI WHITE: But there are real discrepancies in tree equity. And not everyone has access to the cooling benefits of tree canopy. We talk about these individual interventions or things that you can do. But what you're able to do is really determined by what you have access to. And so making sure that we really invest in creating these solutions and access to these resources for everyone is going to be a really important part of how we navigate through the heat in the coming decades.

EMILY BRIGHT: From the individual to the systemic, that's really helpful. Thanks so much for your time, Kristi.

KRISTI WHITE: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

EMILY BRIGHT: That was University of Minnesota clinical health psychologist, Kristi White.