More people in Taiwan are dying from strokes, particularly young people, Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed.
The number of deaths in Taiwan due to a stroke, mainly from the rupture of cerebral blood vessels, was about 12,000 in 2019, the highest in 12 years, ministry data showed.
Strokes, also known as cerebrovascular accidents, are no longer exclusive to elderly people, as more people are at higher risk due to not drinking enough water throughout the day, ignoring chronic health conditions, taking on too much stress at work, keeping irregular hours or having an unhealthy lifestyle, health officials said.
The ministry’s data showed that one in five people who died from a stroke were not senior citizens: About 20 percent were 45 or younger, 40 percent were aged 50 to 59, and 480 people were aged 40 to 49.
Overall, strokes cause more than 10,000 deaths in Taiwan each year, officials said, adding that researchers have estimated that about 10 million people in Taiwan are over the age of 35, and there is an estimated stroke incidence rate of three per every 1,000 people, so about 30,000 people have a stroke each year, mostly caused by cerebral infarction or the rupture of cerebral vessels.
Ten percent of people who died from a stroke in 2015 were under the age of 45, and that figure has climbed steadily each year since, the ministry’s data showed.
“In our clinical rehabilitation work, we have been seeing young people experiencing a stroke, although some might be caused by hereditary conditions,” said Tsai Po-yi (蔡泊意), an attending physician at Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
“We had one case who was under the age of 30, who has a family history of high blood pressure, and he stopped taking medicine for it, believing he [was too young to be affected], but he suffered a stroke within a month,” Tsai said.
“Also we see people with jobs in the tech industry, who are under much stress ... and often work into the night, being struck down by stroke,” she added.
Chen Lung (陳龍), a doctor and Taiwan Stroke Society board member, said that young people are now prone to having high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar.
For example, a high-school student who attended classes in the day and had part-time jobs at night had a stroke when playing computer games, he said.
People who keep irregular hours and are under stress at work can experience a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system and blood pressure abnormalities, he said.
Tsai said that thickening of the blood can lead to clotting, so people should drink water regularly, at one-and-a-half to two-hour intervals, and when exercising, every hour.
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