Heart attacks in American young people under 44 years of age have surged an “alarming” 66% since 2020, with experts blaming a sharp rise in myocarditis (heart inflammation) during the pandemic. The Mail has the story.
Heart attacks were once thought of as a disease of age – but worrying new data shows they are increasing in healthy young adults.
Roughly 0.3% of Americans aged 18-44 had a heart attack in 2019 – but last year that rose to 0.5%, or one in 200.
While that may still seem like a relatively low number, it represents a 66% increase in cases in just four years, which doctors call “alarming”. It also means that one in five heart attack patients are now younger than 40.
A number of factors are thought to be at play including rampant drug use, obesity, sedentary lifestyles and bad diets. But the timing strongly implies the Covid pandemic has played a role.
The virus itself causes widespread inflammation in the body that can damage the heart or lead to blood clots. Depression, anxiety and stress also surged among young people during lockdowns – and all three have been linked to heart attacks.
Dr. Deepak Bhatt, the Director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, told TODAY: “There are definitely more younger people coming in with heart attacks.
“There’s data to back that up. What’s driving that is more controversial.”
There were millions fewer visits to doctors during the early years of the pandemic, which means chronic conditions that may contribute to heart disease risk went unnoticed.
An increase in the number of young people developing type 2 diabetes, which is associated with thicker and stickier blood which raises the risk of blood clots and, in turn, heart attacks.
But in many doctors’ view, the timing is simply too coincidental for Covid not to be involved.
Studies have shown that, once in the body, the virus can cause the heart to become inflamed, a condition known as myocarditis, leading to damage that makes it harder to pump blood around the body.
Over time, in extreme cases, this can damage the organ to the point it becomes too weak to adequately pump enough blood to the rest of your body, causing heart failure.
The Covid vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna have also been shown to cause heart inflammation in rare cases, specifically young men and boys.
But real-world research has shown the risk of having this reaction to a vaccine is much lower than the risk you take not getting vaccinated in the first place – because severe Covid is much more likely to damage the heart.
Worth reading in full.
Note that Dr. Deepak Bhatt says what’s driving it is “more controversial”, without explaining what’s so “controversial” about it. Presumably he’s referring to the vaccines, which despite being shown in studies to cause heart damage across the board and myocarditis in up to one in 27 are mentioned in the Mail report only in passing as causing a “rare” side-effect. The report also repeats the canard that the vaccine harm is to be contrasted with Covid harm, as though vaccination prevents COVID-19, when it doesn’t of course (numerous studies have shown increased infection rates in the vaccinated) and the risks must be added.
A recent Spanish study found a 50% increase in death and heart failure among vaccinated patients who’d previously had both Covid and a heart attack compared to equivalent unvaccinated patients, a result consistent with vaccines having a strong independent impact on serious heart conditions. The authors indicate this may be linked to the fact that the vaccinated had about 31 times more anti-spike protein antibodies in their blood than the unvaccinated, which can increase inflammation.
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