The problem is their lifestyle, which consists mostly of an insatiable addiction to screen time

Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, have witnessed it all: the transition from a landline to a mobile phone, from postal mail to text messages, from dial-up internet to unlimited broadband, from outdoor to online games and from home-cooked meals to home-delivered fast food. Over a span of three decades, they have experienced changes that earlier happened over centuries.

While this has made millenials most tech-savvy generation—along with the succeeding Gen Z – they are also the most unhealthy. In their thirties or forties now, millenials are experiencing cases of deteriorating health that earlier generations didn’t see until their fifties.

The problem is their lifestyle, which consists mostly of an insatiable addiction to screen time.

“Millennials are seeing their health decline faster than the previous generation as they age,” finds a report released in November 2019 by BlueCross BlueShield and prepared by Moody’s Analytics. “This extends to both physical health conditions, such as hypertension and high cholesterol, and behavioral health conditions, such as major depression and hyperactivity. Without intervention, millennials could feasibly see mortality rates climb by more than 40 percent compared to Gen-Xers at the same age.”

Senior Consultant, Endocrinology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, Dr. Richa Chaturvedi says that the modern lifestyle is adversely affecting young people physically as well as psychologically. Click To Tweet

“Their sleep cycles are affected mostly because they spend a large part of their time glued to the screen which disturbs their sleep causing other disorders such as binge eating during the night, obesity, light insulin resistance, early diabetes, high blood pressure, and mood disorders,” Dr Chaturvedi adds.

According to a recent study by the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, during the second year of the pandemic, the “observed” vs “predicted” rates of heart attack death had increased by 29.9 percent for adults aged 25 to 44.

Concurs Dr. Syed Maqbool, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Government Medical College in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region.

“Earlier young heart attacks were rare but now globally their prevalence has increased. In our experience, five to six in every 10 patients are less than 50 years old,” Dr Maqbool says. “Obesity is a central in most disorders.”

Youngsters, he adds, are too busy with their schedules and resort to less physical activity and unhealthier choices of food.

“This, in turn, contributes to obesity, which leads to heart disease. This is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken,” Dr. Maqbool explains. “Smoking is also a very important risk factor for young people. Almost four in every 10 patients are smokers.”

A study in Lancet published in 2018 found that the contribution of cardiovascular diseases to total deaths and disease burden in India has almost doubled since 1990. The data again points to the main culprit: a sedentary lifestyle primarily ushered in by longer screen time.

Health experts are recommending digital fasting, physical activity, walking, healthy eating and control of blood pressure and weight to reclaim a healthy lifestyle.

Also Read: Depression in young age leads to early brain aging in midlife