44% of older millennials already have a chronic health condition

cnbc.com

12 points·pseudolus··5 comments

We're at the start of an interesting period in human history.

Millennials have grown up with all sorts of petrochemicals surrounding them in a way not previously seen. We realized BPA was bad, but it's still around and the replacements are mostly just untested and unknown, bit actually safe. There are hundreds of different chemicals from agricultural or industrial use in our water supply, as are a number of heavy metals, pharmaceutical drugs, etc.

Add in air pollution, diets high in sugar and with coloring, emulsifiers, preservatives. Our gut microbiomes are a mess, we've got endocrine disruptors in our food and water, we're stressed out and isolated.

It all adds up to a population that's going to have formerly rare diseases and conditions tied to inflammation, autoimmune or similar issues being far more common

A lot of chronic illness is self inflicted through lifestyle (Type II, High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, Metabolic Disease/Obesity, etc). Staying healthy is hard work, some people just aren't cut out for it.

44% of older millennials are _being treated_ for chronic health problems.

This could be a cultural thing. "Chronic" is a very vague term. Men from the boomer generation especially may be averse to complaining about a health condition.

And some health conditions are not obvious until there is an incident or until the person gets a checkup. High blood pressure is often referred to as the "silent killer" as many people that don't get their BP tested won't necessarily know it has been creeping up. Most big grocery stores sell the BP testers. It is a good cheap investment. Some of the stores have a free BP testing station.

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