Health is important throughout an individual’s life, but chronic health issues are rarely a cause for concern among young people. Though age is a risk factor for many health conditions, anyone, including young women, can develop conditions that affect their long-term health.
Health issues that were once predominantly associated with aging individuals are now occurring more frequently in young populations, a link researchers with the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at The John Hopkins University suggest is a byproduct of increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Such lifestyles have contributed to an obesity epidemic, and that could be leading to a greater risk of various health problems in young people, including young women. Though those conditions can be serious, the CCPHD notes they’re largely preventable. Prevention begins with recognition of issues that are increasingly affecting young women.
High blood pressure
Johns Hopkins reports that high blood pressure affects 7 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 34. According to Cedars Sinai, a recent study from researchers at the Smidt Heart Institute found that women’s blood vessels age faster than men’s. Authors concluded that, given that difference, a 30-year-old woman with hypertension (high blood pressure) is probably more likely to develop cardiovascular problems than a male counterpart of the same age. Young women can speak with their physicians about ways to maintain a healthy blood pressure, which Johns Hopkins notes can reduce risk of stroke by nearly 50 percent.
Colon and rectal cancer
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine recently discovered an increase in colon and rectal cancer among millennials. The reasons behind that increase are not yet known, but the risk is not insignificant. In fact, a 2018 report from the American Cancer Society published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that individuals born in 1990 had twice the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer compared to people born around 1950. Johns Hopkins urges young women to speak with their physicians if they see blood in their stool or if they notice changes in their bowel habits.
Stroke
Johns Hopkins notes that risk factors for stroke, a condition that most often affects people 65 and older, have doubled in millennial women in recent years. Those risk factors include high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. A retrospective review published in the journal Stroke in 2022 found that women ages 35 and younger have a higher incident rate of experiencing stroke compared to men of similar ages. Johns Hopkins notes that risk of stroke is also higher for women than men if women are pregnant or take birth control pills. Women can speak with their physicians regarding their risk for stroke and what they can do to address factors such as obesity and high blood pressure that can increase that risk.
Health issues long associated with aging individuals are now affecting young women with greater frequency. Recognition of these issues and efforts to prevent them can help young women live long, healthy lives.
