Heart attacks are thought of as a disease of age – but new data shows they are increasing in healthy young adults.
Roughly 0.3 percent of Americans aged 18-44 had a heart attack in 2019, but last year that rose to 0.5 percent, or one in 200.
While that may still seem like a relatively low number, it represents a 66 percent 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.
There were also 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.
One theory is that in severe cases, Covid can cause the heart to become inflamed, a condition known as myocarditis, leading to damage that makes it harder to pump blood.
Other doctors have linked the Covid vaccines to heart inflammation.
But all major health authorities, including the CDC, caution that 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 your heart.
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.’
A 2024 study from Duke found the number of people of all ages who died from heart failure has been steadily increasing – from 82 deaths per 100,000 people in 2012 to 106 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021.
That rise was greatest in adults under 45, who saw a 905 percent increase in the number of people who died from a heart complication over the 9 year study period.
Healthy 21 year old Chloe Burke collapsed in 2019 while cheerleading at the University of Houston. The Texan native suffered a cardiac event and had to undergo open heart surgery in order to survive.
Years later, a 38 year old triathlete named Matias Escobar collapsed at the finish line of the New York City Triathlon in 2023.
He was without a pulse for 12 minutes, and doctors found out that the father of one had suffered from a widow-maker heart attack.
He went into a coma and had emergency surgery, and doctors couldn’t determine what had caused the problem in the first place.
Similarly, Raquel Hutt, a 24 year old from New York who developed severe shooting pain in her left arm while using the bathroom in August 2024.
The healthy young woman was suddenly in the ‘worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life’.
Still, EMT’s and medical staff dismissed her symptoms, and told her she was suffering from a panic attack.
Eventually, they conceded and tests showed that Ms Hutt had suffered from an unexplained, massive heart attack.
A number of factors are thought to be at play for the increase in young people being struck by heart conditions.
To start, in recent years, research has begun linking the COVID-19 virus to an increase in heart problems.
A 2023 study from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center found that heart attack deaths in people 25 to 44 increased by nearly 30 percent during the early years of the pandemic.
Dr. Susan Cheng, a cardiologist at Cedars Sinai who authored the 2023 study, told TODAY: ‘Young people are obviously not really supposed to die of heart attack. They’re not really supposed to have heart attacks at all.’
Another theory is that the virus can cause inflammation across many blood vessels, which could make someone more likely to suffer from blood clots which lead to heart attack.
Finally, Dr Cheng suggested, the severe stress that some people deal with while infected with the virus could also cause spikes in blood pressure and resulting heart problems.
In addition to stressors from COVID, Dr Bhatt suggested that substance abuse habits in younger generations could be contributing to the increase. ‘I hate to say it, but you know there is more substance abuse these days,’ Dr Bhatt said.
Vaping, cocaine and even marijuana use can all potentially contribute to an increased risk for blood clots and in turn, heart attack.
Finally, levels of obesity and diabetes in younger people have been steadily rising since the dawn of the 21st century. The rates of diabetes in people under 45 doubled from 1995 to 2015, according to the American Diabetes Association.
In addition, obesity rates in Americans aged 20 to 44 moved from 32 percent in 2009 to 40 percent in 2020, a study from the American Medical Association reported.
Both of these factors can increase someone’s likelihood of developing cardiac complications – like heart attack – because they tend to raise blood pressure and put more strain on the heart.
Also, some doctors, like Dr Noel Bairey Merz, a cardiology professor at Cedars Sinai, suggest that modern eating habits which rely on fast food could be contributing to the ‘diabesity epidemic’.
Dr Bairey Merz told Yahoo Life that since younger people are more likely to have grown up eating fast food and highly processed snacks than older generations, they may be more at risk for developing lifestyle conditions which may lead to heart attack.
Outside of the larger trend, research has also shown that roughly 1 in every 50,000 young athletes dies each year from sudden cardiac arrest.
This is likely linked to how hard the heart has to work during rigorous exercise – leading to strain that thickens the heart muscles or cause an irregular heart beat, according to Mayo Clinic cardiologists. Tragically, this sometimes also occurs when an athlete has an undiagnosed heart condition.
Though heart attack in young people is still rare overall, Dr Laxmi Mehta, the director of Preventative Cardiology and Women’s Cardiovascular Health at The Ohio State University said, it’s important for young people to be aware that they are possible.
Dr Mehta said: ‘It is alarming that younger people don’t feel that they’re at risk for heart disease but it’s not surprising. Most young people think heart disease only happens in old people but that’s not the case.’
There are also steps young people can take to reduce their risk of ever ending up in this position.
Dr Bairey Merz recommends doing your best to manage your weight by getting regular exercise and eating a well rounded diet.
In addition, getting plenty of sleep and managing stress is crucial to managing heart attack risk, Dr Bhatt said.
