Stroke Hospitalizations Up in Teens, Young Adults

Older Americans are suffering fewer strokes, but new government research shows that stroke hospitalizations are sharply rising among children and younger adults, especially for men under 35. Although the study doesn't explore the reasons for the trend, experts point to the obesity epidemic, increasing rates of diabetes and high blood pressure as likely culprits. Recreational drugs may play a role as well, they added. "Young people should see their doctor for regular checkups," said Dr. Brett Kissela, a professor of neurology at the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute, who has conducted previous research on strokes but was not involved with this study.

Routine check-ups can help control risk factors for stroke, such as high blood pressure, he explained. Dr. Mary George, a researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is scheduled to report the findings Wednesday at the International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles. Experts note that research presented at meetings typically has not been subjected to the same scrutiny as studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals. For the study, CDC researchers examined hospitalization data for the period from 1994 to 2007 from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, identifying patients with a primary diagnosis of ischemic stroke.

Ischemic stroke, which occurs when a blood clot or clogged artery blocks the blood supply to the brain, is more common than hemorrhagic stroke, the result of a ruptured blood vessel. The increases and decreases in stroke rates varied by gender and age group, the researchers found. Among males aged 15 to 34, the rate surged by nearly 53 percent. Among females in that age group, it increased 17 percent. Strokes soared 36 percent in boys aged 5 to 14 and 31 percent in girls of the same age. Men between 35 and 44 years old had a 47 percent increase in stroke incidence. For women in that age range, stroke incidence rose 36 percent.

ER Visits by Underage Drinkers Spike on New Year's

The number of emergency department visits that involved underage drinking jumped by more than 250 percent on New Year's Day two years ago, compared with other days of the year, a new U.S. study reveals. Researchers with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that an estimated 1,980 emergency visits on Jan. 1, 2009, had something to do with underage drinking. The national average for such visits during the year as a whole was 546 per day.

Compared with other national holidays, the number of admissions on New Year's Day linked to underage drinking was 191 percent higher than on Memorial Day and 110 percent higher than on the Fourth of July, the researchers explained. "This stunning increase in underage drinking-related emergency room visits on New Year's Day should be a wake-up call to parents, community leaders and all caring adults about the potential risks our young people alcohol face for -related accidents, injuries and death during this time of year," Pamela S. Hyde, the agency's administrator, said in a news release.

"Parents, clergy, coaches, teachers and other role models must do everything they can to positively influence young people including talking with them early and often about the many health dangers underage drinking poses to their physical and emotional health and well-being," Hyde urged. Kenneth R. Warren, acting director of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, described the finding as "very troubling" and said that it was "in line with what we already know about the increase in alcohol-related problems during the winter holidays."

Number of Uninsured American Adults Hits Record High

Nearly 50 million Americans have gone without health insurance for at least part of the past year up from 46 million people in 2008, federal health officials reported Tuesday. Those people included not only those Americans living in poverty, but an increasing number of middle-income people, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The bottom line is that uninsurance of young and middle-class adults increased by 4 million people from 2008 to the first quarter of 2010," CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said during a news conference Tuesday.

What's more, the number of people without insurance for a year or more increased from 27.5 million in 2008 to 30.4 million in the first quarter of 2010, Frieden said. "That's an increase of 3 million of chronically uninsured adults." These findings debunk two myths about health insurance, Frieden said. "The first myth is that it's only the poor who are uninsured. In fact, half of the uninsured are over the poverty level," he said. "The second myth is that it's only healthy people who are uninsured and that young healthy people make a choice not to have health insurance. In fact, more than two out of five individuals who are uninsured at some point during the past year had one or more chronic diseases," he said.

During the past 10 years, the number of U.S. adults without insurance for at least part of the year has risen an average of 1.1 million people a year, and about half are middle-income adults, according to the report. People without health insurance are more likely to skip medical care because of cost. This can lead to poorer health, higher long-term health care costs and early death, the report said. Uninsured adults with chronic medical problems are three times more likely to skip medical care, compared to those with insurance. For instance, more than 40 percent of people without insurance who suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure or asthma skipped getting care due to costs, the report found.

Surgery May Be Best for Irregular Heartbeat in Young

Young people with the kind of irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation may be better off undergoing surgery to fix the problem instead of taking medication first, a new study suggests. Atrial fibrillation, which causes a person's pulse rate to change from minute to minute, can boost the risk of stroke and cause other problems. The condition is rare in younger people and can occur for no known reason. There are a number of treatments for atrial fibrillation, including medication, cardioversion and catheter ablation. A heart specialist who's familiar with the new study findings said ablation is indeed a worthwhile alternative. "Younger patients tend to respond very well to this therapy," said Dr. John Day, medical director of heart rhythm services at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.

In the study, which was released online Sept. 21 in advance of publication in the journal Circulation: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology, researchers examined the medical records of 1,548 patients who underwent catheter ablation between 2000 and 2008 in the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The average age of the patients was 56 years, and 70 percent were men. The investigators found that younger patients had fewer complications than older ones and did just as well after the surgery. A year after surgery, 87 percent of the patients under the age of 45 had experienced little or no atrial fibrillation.

Why choose the surgery instead of medication? "While atrial fibrillation is more common with increasing age, clinical experience has suggested that younger patients tend to be more symptomatic and less willing to take long-term medications," Dr. Peter Leong-Sit, study lead author and an arrhythmia physician at London Health Sciences-University Hospital in London, Ontario, Canada, said in a news release from the American Heart Association. The surgery isn't cheap. It can cost $30,000-$40,000, Day noted. But studies have shown it can be cheaper in the long run if the alternative is a lifetime of medications and complicated testing and care, he added.