After Luke Perry’s death from a massive stroke at age 52, many people asked how this could have happened. Wasn’t the “Beverly Hills, 90210” star too young for a stroke? And could this tragedy have been prevented? Perry joins a growing list of celebrities who have fallen victim to heart attacks or strokes before age 55, including Sharon Stone, Rosie O’Donnell, John Mellencamp and Bob Harper.
Rates of cardiovascular events are soaring in younger adults, particularly among women. In a study of more than 28,000 people hospitalized for heart attacks between 1995 and 2014, a whopping 30% (8,737 patients) were between the ages of 35 and 54. Another recent study found that between 2003 and 2012, stroke rates rose by 43% among 45- to 54-year-olds, and by 36% in the 18-to-34 age group. What’s behind this alarming trend? Here’s a look at how to protect your arterial health at every age with the BaleDoneen Method.
In a new study of more than 1.4 million young adults who were hospitalized for a heart attack, 92% had at least one of the following modifiable risk factors: high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol. The research was published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) in February.
Having even one of these risk factors also magnifies the threat of having a stroke at an early age, according to a study of stroke survivors ages 49 and under presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in February. People in their 30s or 40s with at least two of these risks were ten times more likely to suffer a stroke than those with none.
The findings suggest that medical providers need to do a better job of screening younger patients for stroke risk, said Dr. Sharon Poisson, the study’s lead author. “People in their 20s and 30s aren’t typically thinking that high blood pressure or diabetes are things they need to worry about, yet they really do make an impact on stroke risk,” she told USNews.com.
Yet many young people don’t know they are at risk until a heart attack or stroke occurs. In a 2015 study of young heart attack survivors ages 18 to 55, almost all of them had at least one of the risk factors listed above. Yet only 53% knew they were at risk before the event, and even fewer had ever discussed their risks or how to reduce them with their medical provider.
The study of young heart attack survivors also found that women were 11% less likely to be informed of their cardiac danger and 16% less likely to be counseled on risk factor modification, such as lifestyle changes, than men of the same age. An accompanying editorial stated that, “the rising epidemic of [cardiovascular disease] in younger women may be attributable in part to a lack of risk assessment and preventive therapy.”
As we recently reported, part of the problem is that most patients — and some medical providers — don’t know the right age to start screening for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading killer of men and women. In a recent national survey, 92% of patients thought, on average, that screening should start at age 41. Actually, the American Heart Association recommends that screening for cardiac risk start at age 20.
CVD, which claims more American lives each year than all forms of cancer combined, can start to develop when people are in their teens or early 20s. If undetected and untreated, it can silently progress until it becomes severe enough to cause a heart attack or stroke.
Since heart attacks and strokes can occur in seemingly healthy people with few — or none — of the traditional risk factors, the BaleDoneen Method uses laboratory and imaging tests to directly check each patient for signs of hidden arterial disease. Here are some of the best ways for young people to find out if they are at risk for a heart attack or stroke:
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