White Hair Chronicles VII - Stroke may be striking at a younger age

A female office mate was rushed to the hospital yesterday after exhibiting signs of a stroke. She is just a couple of years older than me. She is the second or third colleague in recent memory to suffer such disease. While we continue to pray and hope for her full recovery, her predicament and the continuous prayers we offer for our ill parents, make me realize that we are irreversibly going into that part of aging demographics.

As I am wont to do, I googled what causes strokes. I came across this news that stroke may be striking at a younger age in the United States. Research on stroke patients at a St. Louis hospital between 1999 and 2008 found that 45 percent were under 65 and 27 percent were under the age of 55. Although they say it is hard to know from this single study whether this is a trend throughout the United States, I think this could be happening as well elsewhere. My female colleague is a year short of 50. The other colleagues I know are also below 65.

Suddenly, it's not just the white hairs we should worry about.