← brief for 2026-09-04 · Nutrition & lifestyle

Acute kidney injury and liver damage are the most common forms of end organ damage in exertional heat illness in otherwise healthy young adults.

Key takeaways

Doctors reviewed emergency room admissions of otherwise healthy young adults who overheated during sport or work. Sudden kidney injury and liver damage were the most common types of organ damage they found. Sudden kidney injury means the kidneys stop filtering properly over hours or days, and it can leave lasting damage. This is a review of past records, so it shows what turned up together, not what caused what, but it is a practical reason to take heat and hard exertion seriously.

Who did this work

DeGroot DW · Goodwin KC · Giersch GEW · Charkoudian N

Source

Article · PubMed, Climate, heat and the kidney · 2026 Jun 10
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42694931/