How New York’s heat waves have worsened dementia and mental health

Diane Romano was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 52. In the nine years since, her husband, John, has taken care of her at their home on Long Island.

But he and other dementia caregivers have faced an added challenge the last couple weeks: extreme heat.

“It's difficult caring for someone who has Alzheimer's if you put the weather aside — just the normal day to day,” John Romano said. "When you add heat and weather, it impacts them in a number of ways.”

For many people, extreme heat is a nuisance. For Diane Romano and other dementia patients, it can be deadly.

About one in nine Americans over the age of 65 has dementia. It’s caused by degenerative, neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s — and can impair thinking, reasoning and memory.

People with dementia are also incredibly vulnerable to heat, researchers told Gothamist, in part because their patients have lost neurons in their brain. Changes to fluid levels in their bodies — like sweating and dehydration during a heat wave — can lead to less blood going to their brain, exacerbating the confusion already being caused by the neuron loss. They may take diuretic medications that can cause greater dehydration still.

“Her mind can't tell the body to adapt to the heat and she just kind of wilts,” John Romano said.

Dementia isn’t the only mental disorder that ERs see more of during heat waves. A June 2021 study by SUNY Buffalo tracked emergency room visits during heat waves that involved mental health crises across New York state.

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