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More Millennials Are Having Strokes
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- rootw0rm 9y agomy wife had a stroke at age 30. 4 strokes actually, 2 bleeds and 2 clots. accidental overdose on stims.
- shams93 9y agoSleep deprivation is known to cause strokes, take a look at how many millennials are expected to put in 80-100 hours for a 40 hour check , extreme high competition overtime just to hold onto their seat.
- guessbest 9y agoThat, combined with MDMA or Adderall, is more likely to lead to epilepsy. Strokes have a stronger connection to diet and weight.
- sotojuan 9y agoOK, ready to get out of my bubble. How true is this? The only people I know that work more than 40 hours a week still work less than 60. This is in "office", food, and service jobs.
- paulddraper 9y agoI know people that would work 80 hour weeks. They were engineers in the gaming industry and a couple crunch weeks were not uncommon. But that's a really specific situation for a short period of time.
- api 9y agoThe gaming industry is notorious.
- cmpxchg8b 9y agoI starting working in games in the early 2000s. The first game I worked on (Black & White) had me working 16-20 hour days, 6-7 days a week for 9 months. It destroyed my health and turned me into an agoraphobic for at least a year, with related conditions lasting much longer. I've seen people have to check into mental health institutions after shipping games. At one place I worked, there was a "crack board", where they would have sweepstakes on who was going to come apart at the seams and lose it. Who knew mental health issues could be so fun? "lol". Needless to say I no longer work in games, it has done damage to my body and psyche for very little return..
- toomuchtodo 9y agoDo employers ever get sued for having an abusive work culture?
- richardknop 9y agoAny data to back this up? I'm a millennial and know plenty other millennials and they usually put 35-40h per week as is standard in Europe.
- dorgo 9y ago20h for me in germany :-P
- VLM 9y agoThere are several numeracy issues with the story. The first is strokes are incredibly rare. Going from 5-ish to 10-ish per 10K hospitalizations. "When I was that age" I was never hospitalized once, so you need to factor in how many times that group is hospitalized. I would theorize its extremely rare leading to perhaps better diagnosis or something rather than actual medical effects. Also its worth contemplating that "when I was that age" a kid who stroked out on coke was considered a coke related death not a stroke related death. A classic example when I was that age was the story of "Len Bias" a basketball player who celebrated being drafted by the Celtics by snorting coke until he died. There was quite a circular firing squad of blame but attitudes in that era were unified that coke killed, not strokes, despite the medical definition and all that. The next numeracy issue is there's about 84 million in the group and unlike previous generations its not white majority and there are considerable differences in race and ancestry and socioeconomic group. Basically that group can't be usefully compared to historical groups because its literally a different people. You wouldn't compare Bolivia with Nigeria and claim the comparison means anything when there's no relationship between the separate and unrelated groups of people. Its entirely possible that (now older) middle class professional Scotts-Irish have a different stroke profile than formerly Mexican peasant villagers. Apples to Oranges means nothing. That group is a different nation merely coincidentally happening to inhabit the same plot of land. Like comparing the medical issues of the pre-Crusades residents of Jerusalem to Crusades ere residents. Or pre- and post- Holocaust ghettos in eastern europe. Its a different people, the comparison means nothing. The next numeracy issue is there's 84M in the group, as of May 15 2015 Time magazine (per google) claims only 53M are in the workforce. As of 2013 Gallup poll indicated only 43% of the group have a full time job, and 43% of 83M is 36M. So there's a lot of handwaving involved, but when only 36M out of 84M are working full time, overwork is probably not statistically possible to double the instance of strokes. That would imply strokes are something like six times more likely among full time workers. Basically the socioeconomic group is extremely poor and disenfranchised and no percentage of ivy grad programmers dying at their desks at video game companies is numerically high enough to double the entire groups stroke rate. There are not enough SV programmers such that if they all died of strokes it would boost the numbers. Whats killing kids can't be work because the employment stats are so incredibly dire, permanent long term economic decline and all that.
- dheera 9y agoThis. The whole culture of working overtime and weekends as a "norm" is horribly unhealthy. Weekends were invented for a reason, i.e. to not work. I spend most of my weekends biking, hiking, socializing, working on personal projects, and generally trying to be healthy, both physically and mentally. I say this as a cardiac arrest survivor. I would be terrified to be stuck in an office for 7 days a week. It's just not right for the body or mind.
- Herodotus38 9y agoA couple potential causes: Increasing incidence of morbid obesity, HTN, type II diabetes, which are risk factors for strokes. Increased incidence of IV drug abuse, which sometimes leads to endocarditis, leading to septic emboli (I see this very often).
- 80211 9y agoYes. We need to stop subsidizing and normalizing obesity.
- Herodotus38 9y agoHonestly, I think the opioid epidemic is really what is driving this more. Unfortunately the article doesn't bring it up. Though I do agree with you in general that we need a fundamental cultural change or we are going to see the average life expectancy. Every morbidly obese child you see has s good chance of not living past 50-60, and their adulthood is going to be marked by early disability.
- just4themoney 9y agoIn fairness the article actually does bring up the drug angle twice, but in passing. >in our data we saw this [youthful stroke] increase independently of that,” says Brett Kissela, professor and chair of the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, who headed the 2012 work. It is likely drug use among the younger adult population also plays a role, he says >Ralph Sacco, president of the American Academy of Neurology, notes that “data has been scant” about strokes among younger people. “There has been mounting evidence from different studies suggesting that even though the incidence and mortality of stroke is on the decline, the rates may not be dropping quite as much—and even [may be] increasing—among younger populations,” Sacco says. “The reasons for these trends are not entirely clear but there are concerns about obesity, diabetes and physical inactivity having a greater impact in younger stroke victims.” Drug use may be another factor, he adds.
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- shadowhunter 9y agoSensasionalistic garbage. Young, healthy people don't have strokes. Unless you're a dimwit who takes too many drugs, then I'd say you probably deserve it. Even scientific american has downgraded to putting out click baits now. Sad state of affairs.
- specializeded 9y agoIt’s “click bait”, and what a sad, sad view to have on addiction. I hope it never affects you or anyone you care about.
- weinzierl 9y agoIron deficiency anemia (IDA) has been associated with strokes in young people. IDA doesn't necessarily have pronounced symptoms and a diagnosis with a blood sample is simple and cheap. It is often considered a "female disorder" but it's only slightly more common in females than males. tldr: Have your blood checked. [1] https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crinm/2012/487080/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crinm/2012/487080/ EDIT: As most follow up comments seem to center around diet as a cause, I wanted to point out that there are several other causes.
- simonsarris 9y agoVarious deficiencies are definitely a problem in my friend population, where many of them are vegans. The vegan diet is a diet of deficiencies, and since none of them are particularly careful about what they eat, I worry that it is making them all worse off. Iron and B12 may be the most obvious, but also D3, calcium, zing, animal based nutrients like creatine, and I'm sure others. Unfortunately, this becomes a touchy subject with them very quickly, and most of them believe "being vegan is healthier," but are uninterested in engaging with or supporting this claim.
- danenania 9y agoI'm not vegan, but the counterargument I've heard is that an unbalanced omnivore diet can also lead to deficiencies/nutrition problems, and that actually the average vegan diet is more balanced overall than the average omnivore diet, so it's unfair to single out vegans when eating a healthy and varied diet is a challenge for everyone. In other words, you should probably be just as worried about your non-vegan friends who eat too much meat, not enough leafy greens, not enough vitamins, etc.
- ThomPete 9y agoHow can a vegan diet be more balanced? It lacks diversity which as far as I understand is the primary foundation for good healthy diet. Many different things in not too much quantity.
- acalderaro 9y agoPossible reasons: Diet (any non-red meat eating diet for nutrient deficiencies, or too much meat due to reliance on fast food), drug/stimulant use (YOLO culture?), More sedentary lifestyle (Desk jobs, social media for 'entertainment'), Lack of resources to take time off from work (too many hours + high rents = no time/money to do have non-home hobbies) The interesting statistic was the urban regions were less pronounced than the suburbs, which may indicate something either cultural or economic that may drive this change. Either way, it's unfortunate. We're living in the best possible time in history, and many millennials are being impacted by something which - in some cases - may be completely avoidable.
- mazamats 9y agoWhat does not consuming red-meat have to do with anything? Consumption of red meat is at an all time high and is growing every year.
- pcl 9y agoAccording to another comment here, iron deficiency is a common cause of strokes in younger people. Diets low in red meat often lead to iron deficiency. (Of course, this can be addressed with a supplement, but not everyone who avoids red meat also takes iron supplements.) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14683737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14683737
- copperx 9y agoExcess iron in men also elevates cancer incidence, so I don't think one should take an iron supplement if there's no need. A blood test is necessary. If you look closely at the men and women's multivitamins that are sold in stores, you'll see that there is no iron on the men's multivits. Excess iron can be reduced by donating blood. Also important: cast iron cookware introduces a non-insignificant amount of iron into cooked food, which can be detrimental (or beneficial) depending on the subject.
- protonfish 9y ago
- Animats 9y agoAlmost doubled in some areas since 2003. That's huge.
- 80211 9y agoIt's mostly obesity. If we allowed for obesity as a reason to deny health coverage, then health innsurance would be affordable. And since it costs nothing to lose weight, it seems fair.
- Pulcinella 9y agoIf we allowed for bad opinions as a reason to deny health coverage, then health insurance would be affordable. And since it costs nothing to post better, it seems fair.
- ams6110 9y agoNo need to go full denial. Insurance is priced according to risk. If I've got a record of accidents and traffic violations then my car insurance costs more. If I'm 100 lbs overweight and hypertensive then life insurance costs more. Medical insurance can be priced the same way, creating incentives to maintain a healthy weight and diet.
- logicfiction 9y agoI don't necessarily disagree, but I think you start getting into challenging grey area with pre-existing conditions. Is being overweight a consumer responsibility but an auto-immune disease isn't? How do you effectively draw a line between disease or health risks someone should be responsible for versus not.
- ams6110 9y agoWell ideally you have insurance before the "pre existing" condition exists (or is discovered). However in general I think pre-existing conditions need to be handled by something other than "insurance" and the trick is to do it in a way that doesn't incentivize people from foregoing insurance until they get sick.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoHey, if your family has a history of cancer, they should also charge you more right? It's only fair.
- galois198 9y agoFrom what I understand, strokes are caused by the same thing heart attacks are - atherosclerotic plaques, and APs are caused by high blood cholesterol - APs are literally constituted of cholesterol/foam cells. Has the consensus changed?
- dataisfun 9y agoMore commonly from dissections of the internal or external carotid or vertebral arteries, which for some bizarre reasons happens less as you age.
- Herodotus38 9y agoDon't take this the wrong way but your statement is incorrect. I don't have time to type out all the various subsets of strokes but Wikipedia is a good initial source. Dissections are fairly uncommon. Far more common are emboli strokes from afib, small vessel atherosclerosis, for example. Interestingly, dissections as you mention cause ischemic strokes by (generally speaking) flicking off clots that mess things up downstream that form within a pouch made by the dissection (low blood flow + body trying to patch things up = pro-coagulation). Note in this case there is a tear in the artery wall but the wall remains (ie, no blood exits the artery). This is different than an aneurysm, when the arterial wall bursts and you have bleeding within the brain. That is termed a hemorrhagic stroke. Source: hospitalist physician for 7 years who has cared for 100s of strokes at a hospital that specializes in neurology.
- sjg007 9y agoThere are two major kinds of stroke, ischemic and hemorrhagic.
- abalone 9y agoWhile that may be the most common cause, there are many causes of strokes including, in some cases, birth defects that have nothing to do with lifestyle or genetics (as far as we know). See: AVM.
- dcosson 9y agoI was under the impression that those correlations are clear but the causalities are still very much up for debate.
- icantdrive55 9y ago1. I wish they included the raw numbers. 2. How to lie with statistics, by Darrel Huff. 3. I don't know if there's a real problem. Articles like this should be illegial. 4. Maybe not illegial, but have all studies/advertisements include the raw numbers too.
- nraynaud 9y agoI couldn't find the separation by kind of stroke (arterial/veinous, ischemic/hemorrhagic).
- pella 9y ago2 months ago: "Researchers Find Gut Bacteria Can Trigger Brain Lesions That Lead to Strokes ; Another connection between the gut and the brain." http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-find-gut-bacteria-can-trigger-brain-lesions-that-lead-to-strokes http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-find-gut-bacteria-ca... HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14315355 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14315355
- MicroBerto 9y agoMy longshot theory: Molly. I've watched brilliant brains literally get ruined by the overuse of that garbage. I would bet anything that it's more dangerous than any of its users want to admit.
- sevenfive 9y agoDo you know what a stroke is?
- kaizoku_ 9y agoThis may only be a case study, but these doctors indicate an association between MDMA use and strokes. http://ispub.com/IJEICM/8/1/4514 http://ispub.com/IJEICM/8/1/4514 Available data imply a strong association between MDMA abuse and cerebral infraction.
- MicroBerto 9y agoYes, do you? Funny how the downvotes and attacks come when you discuss the possibility of drug-induced brain damage in Millennials to a website full of.... drug-defending Millennials!
- sevenfive 9y agoI think molly is stupid, and would never try it. BUT molly-induced brain damage is usually hyponatremia, or a subtler form of damage to the serotonin system. not stroke.
- MicroBerto 9y agoThe absence of proof is not the proof of absence. Also, did I not mention "longshot theory"? I stand by what I said and will double down in fact. Too many people melting their brains with that crap and there are almost definitely unforseen consequences of doing so.
- gridit 9y agoI enjoyed reading this, and was surprised to learn it was written two decades ago in (1998). I wonder what we've learned since?
- bogshaker 9y agoStress of being slaves to a bank for the rest of their lives when wages and jobs in those areas are shrinking, and while they watch the planet being trashed.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]