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More young adults are having strokes — local doctors urge early action
For decades, the average stroke patient was 65 or older. But doctors are seeing a troubling shift — more strokes are happening to people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - For decades, the average stroke patient was 65 or older. But doctors are seeing a troubling shift — more strokes are happening to people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
What we know:
Aubrey Hasley is just 23 and she had a stroke last summer.
"I have a history of getting really bad migraines with aura… So at first that's what I assumed that it was," Hasley said. "I was just going to try to plan to nap that off, but as I went to go and nap, the red flags kind of kept coming."
Her headache worsened. The room began spinning.
"At that point, I had actually texted my friends, ‘I think I'm having a stroke' and I don't know that I knew that that's what it was, but subconsciously, since I work around stroke patients and had learned a little bit about it, that it was on the back of my mind," she said.
Hasley is currently studying for her master’s in occupational therapy. She does part of her hands-on training at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights — the same hospital where her mother and brother rushed her last June.
"I believe I was in the room with my mom when she started to notice my speech was starting to sound a little bit funny," Hasley said.
Doctors soon found a clot in an artery that supplies blood to her brain stem.
" I had slurred speech, I had kind of lost the ability to move the right side of my body. I had double vision," she said.
Hasley underwent an emergency thrombectomy — a procedure to remove the clot — performed by Dr. Mohammad Anadani, an Endeavor Health Neuro Endovascular Surgery Chief.
"We are seeing an increase. We are seeing more young people coming with strokes. In Aubrey's case, just a few months apart, another patient, the same age, had a stroke. Different location, otherwise similar," Anadani said.
In both cases, doctors were able to intervene quickly and prevent major strokes.
"They would have stroke symptoms. Ignore it because we're young. Why would we have a stroke? We're aware of at least a few cases where a stroke was missed because of that. We only have a limited time window where we can do any intervention," Anadani said.
"We think it's related to an increase in risk factors in young adults like high blood pressure, cholesterol, and also, I really think it's because of increased stress in young adults. We know that young adults have stress and depression probably double or triple what used to be 10 years ago," he added.
In Hasley’s case, doctors believe her stroke was caused by a blood clot linked to birth control pills. The clot traveled to her brain through a hole in her heart — a congenital condition that had never closed on its own.
Dr. Jairo Mejia, with the American Heart Association, said other risk factors are also playing a role.
"So we are seeing that increase in the use of substances – smoking and vaping, obesity, even the increase in diabetes and early hypertension. So many factors, what we call risk factors, are leading to younger populations to have these conditions that predispose them to have early strokes," said Mejia.
"Vaping causes severe damage to the lungs and the brain, and it's one of the factors also associated with stroke in younger people," Mejia added.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there has been a 16% increase in stroke patients under age 65 in recent years.
What's next:
Doctors say Hasley is doing well after her stroke and, with some adjustments, has a low risk of another.
They stress that stroke signs are the same regardless of age — and acting fast is critical.