United States: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published a report where they showed that hospitalisation due to stroke in people below forty five years of age has risen to near-fifteen percent since 2011.
This is an approximate twin-fold observed in the American population of all ages, which is at 7.8 percent, which made stroke the fifth leading cause of death in America.
The agency found out that there exists a national trend where more and more people are suffering from what the agency considers as direct risk factors for fatal diseases, namely obesity, high blood pressure, and drug addiction, as Dailymail reported.
Rising cases of stroke among young in the US
New statistics presented amongst some of the research by the CDC reveal that first-time stroke cases below the age of forty-five have increased by nearly fifteen percent since 2011.
The total count of the disease has soared under the age group of 50 by 33 percent over the past 20 years, as the study showed.
Previous studies suggested a similar trend
A survey conducted by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2023 revealed that the annual increase in stroke incidence has been constant among the population aged less than forty-nine years for the last three decades. But as for one aspect, the AHA failed to give a detailed explanation of this trend.
However, it suggested that the young people of today have been subjected to experience more stress, less physical activity, and more drug use than previous generations.
Therefore, risk factors such as obesity, high cholesterol, and diabetes, which are causative factors of stroke, were found to be more common among the young population as compared to generations of the past.
According to Dr Christopher David Anderson, a Mass General Brigham neurologist, “The good news is that these are modifiable risk factors. Nobody is destined to have a stroke,” as Dailymail reported.
He stated further, “Treating your other risk factors and taking charge of your health is an effective strategy, and it can prevent stroke risk from taking hold.”
Factors contributing to strokes
Stroke is a heart condition in which circulation of blood to any part of the brain is interrupted and it may be caused by a formation of clot and may also be caused by rupture of blood vessel.
Strokes can also develop into a situation where some of the delicate tissues in the brain start to break down due to lack of adequate supply of fresh blood.
In cases where fresh blood is not supplied to the brain, for instance, in cases where a blood clot occurs, then one might lose huge portions of this essential organ, thus resulting in death.
Early intervention means that one can have a stroke and still live with damaged brain tissue if medical science is able to repair it early enough.
Added on this, is the state of an individual’s health before the brain injury and his or her age, then there could be problems in all bodily functions which can include eating, walking, speaking, thinking and feeling.