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More Millennials Are Having Strokes

scientificamerican.com

21–30 of 192 posts

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Various deficiencies are definitely a problem in my friend population, where many of them are vegans. The vegan diet is a diet of deficiencies, and since none of them are particularly careful about what they eat, I worry that it is making them all worse off. Iron and B12 may be the most obvious, but also D3, calcium, zing, animal based nutrients like creatine, and I'm sure others. Unfortunately, this becomes a touchy…

I'm not vegan, but the counterargument I've heard is that an unbalanced omnivore diet can also lead to deficiencies/nutrition problems, and that actually the average vegan diet is more balanced overall than the average omnivore diet, so it's unfair to single out vegans when eating a healthy and varied diet is a challenge for everyone. In other words, you should probably be just as worried about your non-vegan friends…

How can a vegan diet be more balanced? It lacks diversity which as far as I understand is the primary foundation for good healthy diet. Many different things in not too much quantity.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Various deficiencies are definitely a problem in my friend population, where many of them are vegans. The vegan diet is a diet of deficiencies, and since none of them are particularly careful about what they eat, I worry that it is making them all worse off. Iron and B12 may be the most obvious, but also D3, calcium, zing, animal based nutrients like creatine, and I'm sure others. Unfortunately, this becomes a touchy…

Perhaps that is true for a vegan diet where you only eat standard American food, but a whole foods plant-based diet has been shown time after time to lower risks for all sorts of diseases, from heart disease to cancer to parkingsons and MS. Iron and calcium are in plants, D is in fact added to milk, and can be added to a plant based diet via a pill as well if you don't synthesize enough. You are an animal; your body…

This is true, but the bioavailability of non-heme iron is 14-18% of heme iron https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/

It makes sense to just eat a balanced diet.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#24
post #5
post #4

Sleep deprivation is known to cause strokes, take a look at how many millennials are expected to put in 80-100 hours for a 40 hour check , extreme high competition overtime just to hold onto their seat.

OK, ready to get out of my bubble. How true is this? The only people I know that work more than 40 hours a week still work less than 60. This is in "office", food, and service jobs.

Yeah I routinely exceed 60 during peak season. 80 if I'm working weekends too. And that's focused work with lots of context shifts. So yeah after peak season I'm on the edge of burn-out.

I'd imagine I'm not doing myself any favours there health wise.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#25
post #4

Sleep deprivation is known to cause strokes, take a look at how many millennials are expected to put in 80-100 hours for a 40 hour check , extreme high competition overtime just to hold onto their seat.

Any data to back this up? I'm a millennial and know plenty other millennials and they usually put 35-40h per week as is standard in Europe.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#26
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, combined with MDMA or Adderall, is more likely to lead to epilepsy. Strokes have a stronger connection to diet and weight.

Drugs in the amphetamine class do not cause epilepsy as far as I know. I would be very interested in a source, if you have one.

He probably meant Parkinson's.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Various deficiencies are definitely a problem in my friend population, where many of them are vegans. The vegan diet is a diet of deficiencies, and since none of them are particularly careful about what they eat, I worry that it is making them all worse off. Iron and B12 may be the most obvious, but also D3, calcium, zing, animal based nutrients like creatine, and I'm sure others. Unfortunately, this becomes a touchy…

Perhaps that is true for a vegan diet where you only eat standard American food, but a whole foods plant-based diet has been shown time after time to lower risks for all sorts of diseases, from heart disease to cancer to parkingsons and MS. Iron and calcium are in plants, D is in fact added to milk, and can be added to a plant based diet via a pill as well if you don't synthesize enough. You are an animal; your body…

What is the "standard american diet"? Are you talking junk food which is certainly a bad diet? Or are you talking about the food plate/pyramid which is definitely a good diet?

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps that is true for a vegan diet where you only eat standard American food, but a whole foods plant-based diet has been shown time after time to lower risks for all sorts of diseases, from heart disease to cancer to parkingsons and MS. Iron and calcium are in plants, D is in fact added to milk, and can be added to a plant based diet via a pill as well if you don't synthesize enough. You are an animal; your body…

This is true, but the bioavailability of non-heme iron is 14-18% of heme iron https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/ It makes sense to just eat a balanced diet.

Also zinc and copper is found in animal sources. The only non-animal source for vitamin D is UV exposed mushrooms.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not vegan, but the counterargument I've heard is that an unbalanced omnivore diet can also lead to deficiencies/nutrition problems, and that actually the average vegan diet is more balanced overall than the average omnivore diet, so it's unfair to single out vegans when eating a healthy and varied diet is a challenge for everyone. In other words, you should probably be just as worried about your non-vegan friends…

How can a vegan diet be more balanced? It lacks diversity which as far as I understand is the primary foundation for good healthy diet. Many different things in not too much quantity.

Strictly speaking vegan is obviously a more limited subset of omnivore. But in a practical sense, it would surprise me if vegans didn't have more variety in their diet.

I was vegetarian for almost a decade, basically my 20s, and what became clear immediately was that I had to figure out different stuff to eat. Default food wouldn't work anymore, so I have to branch out a lot and find foods that I would've never thought about before. I think my experience is relatively common.

That having been said, it IS easier to have a deficient diet, if you're not paying attention. "Carbitarian" is what some people call veg-ns who just hork down pasta, bread, and whatever other unhealthy nonfood is technically animal-free.

So I think it's possible that veg-ns have a more diverse diet on average, and that they also are statistically more likely to have deficiencies (something like a bimodal distribution).

Obviously, these are empirical questions.

Re: More Millennials Are Having Strokes

#30

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) has been associated with strokes in young people. IDA doesn't necessarily have pronounced symptoms and a diagnosis with a blood sample is simple and cheap. It is often considered a "female disorder" but it's only slightly more common in females than males. tldr: Have your blood checked. [1] https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crinm/2012/487080/ EDIT: As most follow up comments seem to center…

Various deficiencies are definitely a problem in my friend population, where many of them are vegans. The vegan diet is a diet of deficiencies, and since none of them are particularly careful about what they eat, I worry that it is making them all worse off. Iron and B12 may be the most obvious, but also D3, calcium, zing, animal based nutrients like creatine, and I'm sure others. Unfortunately, this becomes a touchy…

This is surprising to me, as in India a large part of the population is vegetarian. We don't seem to be susceptible to the same problems.

The move away from Milk products & Eggs seems to open a huge nutrient gap that the vegan population hasn't adequately identified how to fill.

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