Health corner: Why Are Heart Attacks on the Rise in Young People?/Newsela

Health corner: Why Are Heart Attacks on the Rise in Young People? – Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic There’s good news and bad news. Although Americans are suffering fewer heart attacks as a whole, the rate of heart attacks for people under 40 is increasing.  For the last several decades, aging has been established as one of the biggest risk factors for heart attacks, typically affecting men 50+ and women 65+. Now, people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are more often falling victim to these cardiovascular attacks. Cause: lifestyle, diabetes “There’s a few reasons why we’re seeing the rise of heart attacks in young people,” says cardiologist Luke Laffin, MD. “But one of the biggest risk factors is the increasing incident of type 2 diabetes.” Contributors to type 2 diabetes include: • Dietary choices such as exposure and access to ultra-processed food. • Weight and obesity.  • Sedentary lifestyle and decreased physical activity. “We’re now seeing heart attacks occurring in young men who are only 25 or 35,” says Dr. Laffin. “Twenty years ago this wasn’t the case and was rarely discussed in medical school.”   Dr. Laffin attributes this new development to the change in lifestyle over the past several decades. There’s been a shift in people’s day-to-day – too much Uber Eats and not enough cardio. Increased screen time has dramatically impacted how much we move as well. Even jobs are more sedentary and require less physical activity than in past decades.  So much, in fact, has shifted over the past several years that some experts aren’t surprised by the fact that heart attacks are climbing in young people.  “These bad habits are starting in early childhood now,” explains Dr. Laffin. “There needs to be attention brought to how important prevention and modification is.”  https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-are-heart-attacks-on-the-rise-in-young-people/ Newsela: Animal that you "can't see and can't find" is on the brink of extinction https://newsela.com/read/asian-unicorn/id/50696