Youth and health, no longer synonymous

Marketwatch reports:

Chicago cardiologist Vincent Bufalino can still recount the details of a few particular patients he saw a decade ago: In the span of a single month, a half-dozen men who arrived at his hospital were having heart attacks—and they were all under the age of 33. At the time, it seemed like an unfortunate coincidence. But it may in fact have been part of a larger trend. There’s growing concern among national health experts that Americans are getting sicker at a younger age, which could potentially lead to more early deaths. Rising rates of obesity among children and adolescents, in particular, will likely lead to more young people having chronic diseases, strokes or heart attacks, doctors and researchers say.

A sad story.