Rising Concerns: Meth Use and Heart Attacks Among Young Adults
A growing trend among young Americans is raising alarms among medical professionals. This trend could be contributing to an increase in a life-threatening condition known as heart attacks. While heart attacks are often associated with older adults, recent data suggests that the situation is changing.
Heart attacks occur in approximately 805,000 Americans each year, which equates to one every 40 seconds. Although most of these cases involve elderly individuals, there has been a noticeable rise in heart attacks among younger people. In 2019, about 0.3 percent of Americans aged 18 to 44 experienced a heart attack. By 2023, this number had increased to 0.5 percent, representing a 66 percent increase over four years. Doctors have described this as alarming, as it means that one in five heart attack patients is now under the age of 40.
Moreover, heart attacks among younger individuals appear to be more dangerous. The risk of dying from a heart attack has dropped nearly 90 percent since the 1990s. However, a study published earlier this year revealed that deaths from severe first heart attacks among adults aged 18 to 54 rose by 57 percent between 2011 and 2022.
Experts have identified several factors that may contribute to this rise, including poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, and increasing rates of obesity and chronic health conditions. However, a new study by the American Heart Association has pointed to another cause unrelated to weight or cholesterol.
Published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the study found that methamphetamine use was linked to about one-in-six heart attacks among young adults.
Researchers analyzed the medical records of 1,300 heart attack patients at a hospital in northern California. These patients were diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), a term used to describe heart attacks. Out of these, 194 patients were identified as having methamphetamine-associated ACS, accounting for 14.8 percent of the cases.
Meth, also known as crystal meth, is a highly addictive illegal drug that has seen a surge in use in recent decades. According to research, an estimated 2 million Americans aged 12 and older reported past-year meth use in 2019, up from 1.4 million in 2016. CDC data from 2015 to 2018 indicated that about 1.6 million adults used meth each year on average, with roughly 53 percent meeting the criteria for methamphetamine use disorder.
When comparing methamphetamine-associated ACS patients to those who did not use the drug, researchers found that meth users were younger (average age of 52 compared to 57) and mostly men. Despite being younger and having fewer traditional risk factors for heart attacks, they had significantly lower survival rates and were twice as likely to die as non-meth users who experienced an ACS.
The study also found that while meth users were less likely to have risk factors like high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, they were more likely to smoke cigarettes, use alcohol, and be unhoused than patients who did not use the drug. Both cigarette smoking and alcohol use are known to increase the risk of heart attacks.
Not only did meth users have worse outcomes, they had a 42 percent chance of being readmitted to the hospital with repeat heart attacks, compared to a 27 percent chance among non-meth users. They also had a higher risk—22 percent—of death from any cause than non-meth users, whose risk was 14 percent.
Study author Dr Susan Zhao, a cardiologist and medical director of the Coronary Care Unit at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, emphasized the importance of awareness. She stated in a press release: “Even though meth users were generally younger and didn’t have typical cardiovascular disease-related conditions like high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes or obesity, they were twice as likely to die after a heart attack when compared to non-users.”
Dr Zhao warned that as meth use rises and spreads, meth-related heart attacks will increasingly occur in areas beyond California. She added: “We want to raise awareness that acute coronary syndrome and meth use affect different groups of people, such as young to middle-aged men without traditional risk factors. These groups have different risk factors and health issues, and they also can have a higher chance of dying from them.”
She concluded by highlighting the need for specific prevention and treatment plans for meth users, a vulnerable and high-risk group. New plans should also focus on helping people stop using meth.
