Israeli scientists find link between obesity and early stroke
Scientists from the Hebrew University (Jerusalem), doctors at Ikhilov Hospital, together with their American colleagues, discovered an alarming pattern. According to their observations, obesity in young people 16-20 years old increases the risk of stroke before the age of 50. According to scientists, this explains the increase in the number of strokes in young people, which has occurred in recent years, both in Israel and the USA, as well as around the world. The results of the study were published in 2021 in the well-known medical journal Stroke.
During the study, data from 1.9 million Israeli teenagers were analyzed. Scientists from Israel, Massachusetts (USA) and South Carolina (USA) compared the body mass index (BMI) in youth and the incidence of strokes in the same people under the age of 50. The sources were the Israeli National Stroke Register and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) database.
Researchers examined health data from young adults over 1985-2013 years. All study participants were divided into groups according to body mass index: lack of weight, normal weight, overweight and obesity. Further observations showed that in 2014-2018. the study participants had 1,088 strokes. The average age of patients was 41 years, with some suffering strokes before the age of 30. It turned out that those who were obese in adolescence had a 3.4 times higher risk of stroke under the age of 50 than people with normal weight.
"Due to the ongoing trend of overweight and obesity in adolescents in the US, Israel and other Western countries, we estimate that the number of strokes in young people will increase in the future and this can cause serious problems in the health and rehabilitation system," says Professor Gilad Twig, one of the study's Israeli leaders.
Professor Deepak Bakhat of Harvard Medical School observed that obesity is not the only cause of strokes in young adults. Among other common reasons, the professor called diabetes and alcohol and drug use.
So far, scientists do not know exactly how obesity in adolescents is associated with strokes. It is also unknown whether the risk of strokes is reduced in those who got rid of excess weight after 20 or after 30 years. Finding out this will help stop the wave of strokes in young people, which awaits developed countries in the coming years.
The author of the article is Dr. Mikhail Zeigarnik
| The site content is translated by machine translation software powered by PROMT. The machine-translated articles are not always perfect and may contain errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. Read original article If you find inaccuracies or errors in the results of machine translation, please write to editor@tadviser.ru. We will make every effort to correct them as soon as possible. |