Asian Dispatch — an independent digital outlet that covers health, climate, and society across the region — has published a major investigative piece titled Rising Heat in Asia: The Toll it Takes on Your Organs. For the liver section, the reporters turned to Dr Chetan Kalal, Associate Director of Hepatology and Liver Transplant at Gleneagles Hospital, Mumbai.
The piece documents how increasingly severe heatwaves across South and Southeast Asia are damaging the heart, brain, kidneys, and liver. Multiple specialists were quoted — cardiologists, neurologists, nephrologists — but the hepatology section belongs to Dr Kalal alone. He explains the physiological cascade that extreme heat triggers in the liver:
“When the core body temperature goes above 40°C, it causes hepatocyte damage, meaning liver cells damage and necrosis. There could also be dehydration. Dehydration would lead to reduced blood flow. That will cause an ischaemia-reperfusion injury because of the sluggish flow or reduced flow.”
Dr Chetan Kalal, Associate Director, Hepatology and Liver Transplant, Gleneagles Hospital, Mumbai
The article also notes, drawing on Dr Kalal’s expertise, that the liver is among the first organs to fail in extreme heat conditions — a point reinforced by a January 2026 research paper cited alongside the interview, which found the liver to be “particularly vulnerable to temperature fluctuations,” with acute liver failure identified as a direct cause of patient death in heat-induced multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
With Asia warming faster than the global average and heatwave duration increasing across the subcontinent, this is a clinical reality that is no longer theoretical. Dehydration, electrolyte loss, and heat stroke — each places a distinct burden on hepatic function. Patients with pre-existing liver disease, cirrhosis, or those recovering from transplantation face compounded risk during summer months.