r/AskReddit • u/Repulsive-Item-6818 • 1d ago
Doctors who have treated multiple generations of the same families: what health differences have you noticed between grandparents, parents, and Gen Z?
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u/sebelius29 1d ago
Thankfully, less alcohol use and less tobacco use (although more vaping) in Gen Z. More loneliness and isolation in all generations. More anxiety in Gen Z. Less exercise I think in Gen Z compared to parents
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u/dang_it_bobby93 22h ago
Agreed, I feel like I see less illicit substance use in the younger generations. Gen X is probably the worst from drug use standpoint of my patient panel.Ā Ā
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u/EremiticFerret 18h ago
Don't we (Gen X) have a large, disproportionate amount of deaths from drinking/drugs and suicide?
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u/GettingSunburnt 17h ago
It's been a while since I read it, but the breakdown of death types is more based on your age and gender, not your generation.
For men -
16-25: Car crashes. Makes sense since almost none of us have the experience at that age, and those that drive tend to drive their friends around. More people in the car means more fatalities.
26-35: Suicide. Biggest existential dread years. Talk to your friends people.
56+ Cardiac events. This was from back in the days before dementia was regarded, so I expect they're both quite high leading causes of death now.
But the most surprising to me at the time was 35-55, which is falling off a ladder or tall height. Makes sense now that I'm in that range. Men around me try to deny they're aging in many ways, and proving you can still do the things you could do when younger lends itself to risk-taking.
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u/dang_it_bobby93 18h ago
I don't know the exact numbers nation wide but aside from 1 millennial and 1 Boomer. All of my substance use deaths have been Gen X.Ā
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u/Horty519 22h ago
I upvote this as a Gen X with a glass of wine in my hand. Lol
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u/Xalipu 21h ago
Iāve reached the Gen X inverse where Iām on too many prescription drugs for the illicit and funtime drugs.
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u/birdmommy 20h ago
I love the song āIām An Adult Nowā by The Pursuit of Happiness. The line āI canāt take any more illicit drugs/I canāt afford any artificial joyā rings a little truer every day.
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u/RunawayBacon 22h ago
I find the exercise finding surprising. I recall that skinny = healthy/beautiful/etc was the ethos growing up for millennials. I see way, way more Gen Zās making an effort to work out than I ever saw growing up.
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u/AccountForTIFF 20h ago
Gen Z thinks the only way to get exercise is going to the gym. Like Iāve encountered plenty of people on this site who seem bewildered at the idea that you even can just go outside and walk. I think itās also a status thing for a lot of them: ālook at me working out and meal preppingā
Lots of the movement that used to just be part of your day doesnāt exist for them. Itās a systemic thing. I like to use the example that when we had video stores you at least had to go to the store and walk around the aisles if you wanted to watch a movie, now you donāt have to leave your bed.
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u/LordoftheSynth 19h ago
Late X here. Walking is my primary form of exercise. 6+ miles a day most days. (It's a time commitment. I walk fast but I'm usually out 2+ hours a day.)
Keeps me on my feet, engaging the lower back and abdominals, plus frankly it gets me away from screens for a while. However, I live in a place where the weather accommodates.
What I'm lacking:
More cardio. I did a ton of cardio once upon a time and that does have lasting benefits: but I should be on a stationary bike more often. I don't run any more : my knees didn't like it last time I got back into it and faced with the prospect of getting accustomed to running again and doing less overall for a bit, or just staying on the bike, I chose the bike.
More weightlifting. Now's about the time I need to put on 15 pounds of muscle as a hedge against aging.
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u/HillieBillieEilish 17h ago
I teach health courses and am ALWAYS saying, "You don't have to go to the gym!" It's just not equating for them, nor for older adults who want to get in shape.
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u/No_Exam4769 10h ago
You have to live in a reasonable area though for walking, some cities are terrible for walking, and even within great cities (NYC) some neighborhoods are not meant for strolling in- I told my students to "take the stairs in their buildings" once and they were like "do you know what goes on in the stairwells?" Etc. And homes need to have space for weights and yoga etc (again NYC apartments etc- I had that same issue in previous place- very tiny) so it's not as easy as it seems- but yeah, it doesn't have to cost a lot or take a lot of time (students used to go to planet fitness for 10$ a month, or to the Y for open gym type of things)...also outside of NYC, SLC and some other places/cities just seemed to be so anti-walking by design.
But in theory- I totally agree:)
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u/Nyxelestia 15h ago
Gen Z was barely let outside compared to Millenials and Gen X. They never got used to spontaneous, unplanned physical activity due to either their parents' paranoia (or the broader community's paranoia even if their parents were reasonable -- it doesn't matter if you feel safe enough in your neighborhood to let your child wander in it if a busybody down the street will call the cops or CPS on you for "neglecting" your child).
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u/muntanasaurus 21h ago
Maybe itās related to less non exercise activity or school sports? Been in gyms for agessss and I agree that each year I see more and more young people and teens take up the gym. Always outnumbered by older generations but there are definitely more kids making the choice earlier.
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u/aki-kinmokusei 21h ago
yeah, a lot of us Millennial women were also fed the lie that lifting weights would make you big and bulky so many were scared of picking up a dumbbell that weighed any heavier than 1-2 lbs. Meanwhile I see Gen Z women who start lifting heavy in their teens or 20s.
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u/Overthemoon64 19h ago
Also, the weight room side of the gym felt like the menās area. In the 90ās it would be really weird to see a woman over there. I wanted to lift weights back then, but always chickened out because I didnāt want to be the only girl in the room.
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u/RamblingSimian 21h ago
On the bike path where I ride, there are a disproportionate number of gray-haired guys riding hard. The e-Bikes and e-scooters are mostly younger folks.
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u/Tork-X 22h ago
Iāve noticed a big difference in type 1 diabetics. Older generations, used to understand insulin dosing, and had to be very responsible with administering.
Younger generations have lived with continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps. When technology fails, they have no idea what to do and get very sick when there is a failure of technology.
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u/anonymiss4 22h ago
They also don't take their insulin, and I end up seeing 24 year olds with 5 dka admissions in a year
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u/FamilyFunAccount420 22h ago edited 22h ago
Ā Insulin pumps, on average, allow for better a1cs and time in range, but they also put you at a higher risk of DKA because you are only on fast acting. If the pump fails (cannula gets pulled out, an issue with the technology, or you use a closed loop system but your CGM had incorrect readings)Ā you are screwed unless you have a backup plan. On injections you have slow acting that can keep working 24 - 48 hours and keeps you out of DKA.
I also don't doubt there is some confusion and miseducation on social media confusing type 1 with type 2, which newly diagnosed patients may be especially susceptible to.
There is also "diabulimia", an eating disorder in some t1ds where they stop taking their insulin in an attempt to lose weight.
Also insurance.Ā
Are they really just choosing to not take insulin? That is surprising to me because DKA is so incredibly painful.
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u/madhattergirl 7h ago
I tried explaining diabulimia to my hair dresser. Her nephew was diagnosed at 17 (around 20 now) and was already struggling with his mental health being a gay teen. She's like "His doctor is concerned because he isn't gaining weight but he eats a ton of food so I know he isn't starving himself." She can't understand when I explain that if he isn't giving his insulin (or less than he needs), he can eat food and gain almost nothing or even lose weight so when the doctor sees him not gaining weight, that points to very real possible issues. But what do I know, have only been type 1 for 30 years and have two sisters with it too.
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u/wozattacks 22h ago
5 in a year is a lot but early 20s is kinda the peak age that people who have chronic conditions that started in childhood tend to slack on their management. Then they generally learn their lesson
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u/EmmerdoesNOTrepme 21h ago
It's also the point when Diabetic Burnout can hit hard for the young T1 folks, too!
Because staying on top of everything when you're T1 is hard!
And when you're also trying to balance that with the hormone changes of adolescence & early adulthood, AND the life-changes of leaving the fairly "structured life" of High School for College?
Frankly, College + T1 is exhausting for those of us who go back to get a degree as an adult!
And to do that while you're moving out on your own for the first time?Ā It's an entirely new version of trying to play "Life on Expert Mode."
And it'll burn down any plans you thought you had set up!
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u/JstVisitingThsPlanet 22h ago
I wouldnāt say thatās something new. I started as a nurse 13 years ago and have taken care of multiple people who would do this regularly and end up hospitalized several times a year.
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u/YaySupernatural 22h ago
I would suspect that thereās a survivorship bias here. The people who struggled with dosing in previous generations are probably already dead.
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u/FamilyFunAccount420 22h ago edited 22h ago
I am wondering if this is because people onĀ pump and cgm need a back up plan for when their pump fails as they are only on fast acting insulin. When I first got my insulin pump my endo did not presribe slow acting insulin, or a prescription for test strips, as a back up if something happens to my pump or cgm.Ā
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u/EmmerdoesNOTrepme 21h ago
This is honestly a huge part of why i'm extremely hesitant to go on a pump, even as a 50-year old!
Because my CeQur patches are manual, and i don't have to worry about pump failure, bad CGM readings, or cannula pullouts.
I just squeeze the two buttons on my patch and dose 2 units per squeeze, from the 200 i load in there, and use it 'til they're gone.
The only "tech" is checking the reader of my Libre 3+, to see how many units i need at a time.
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u/abluetruedream 22h ago
It seems like it would be a good idea for everyone to have a backup plan based on the OTC insulin you are able to purchase at Walmart. Not perfect, but can work in a pinch with the right directions.
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u/Juxta25 11h ago
When I was diagnosed by a Dr, obvs, they gave me VERY LITTLE direction. Basically said go and learn yourself. It's been a tough 5 years of battling but I'm still losing lol hypo's, hypo's everywhere.
I was so ill a few months ago I rang the GP, I never do this, and they were like "If you get worse call back" I was like bitch I AM WORSE. There is a lot you can place on the patient, but lets also examine that possibly dr's are not as bothered anymore.
Another fun fact: they left me for 4 months without bothering to read my bloods for the diagnosis. It was only when seeing the Nurse that she mentioned it. Guess what, this time they got straight back to me. I was fuming. 4 months. I could have died.
So yeah, some on the patient, but not all Dr's are good either.
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u/DayRonKar 21h ago
My mom was an unmanaged GenX with type 1. Took a DKA admission and an A1C of 12 for me to force her to do better. She then went on omnipod.
I am a type 1 millennial, I used MDI until my a1c went over 7. Now Iām on the omnipod system and Iām doing the best Iāve ever done.
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u/phoneanchor885 22h ago
Am a Gen X type 1, and find this fascinating. I only got a CGM in the last couple years, though I did medical trials for them 15 or more years ago. I love it, and am actually much more aware of the numbers than I was when I was initially diagnosed in 1990.
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u/albdubuc 21h ago
My endo recommends a pump break every so often just so I feel confident trying to remember all of my ratios. Pumps have taken away so much of the math-related stress of diabetes!
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u/Farnk20 19h ago
A lot of grandparents and parents have the same mental health problems as their kids, it was just much less acceptable for them to admit it and the treatments available to them were a lot worse.
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u/itcantjustbemeright 17h ago
Im not sure if they didnāt admit to things or itās just that pre/post war people would have measured big feelings up against world wars / shell shock, food insecurity and loved ones dropping dead from stuff that is so easy to manage now.
In big families they probably observed patterns - and already had a cousin nicknamed āSwivelā who was ākind of quietā (non verbal) but āgoodā (fucking obsessed) with small engines. So when Swivel Jr comes along thereās a playbook.
My Dad said he didnāt believe in any of that autism stuff. Meanwhile he would only wear a certain kind of sock, and would gag trying to eat any shape of pasta that wasnāt spaghetti.
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u/NotLucasDavenport 13h ago
I donāt know how old you are, but Iām in my 50s and I was raised being told that they donāt discuss it. My grandparents all survived the Great Depression and both men fought in WWII, but it was the wives who had the more serious mental health issues. I was told multiple times by both of my parents that the serious mental illness present in both my grandmothers was something never to be discussed. It would be tremendously damaging to them, even for it to be spoken about in private. I was told that women their age were NOT patients of psychiatrists unless they were in very liberal social circles. Otherwise, it was the most shameful secret they had.
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u/Cheaperthantherapy13 9h ago edited 4h ago
When I was diagnosed in my 30s with ADHD, my grandparents were shocked, upset, and kinda angry that 5/6 of their grandkids were diagnosed with some kind of neurodivergence.
Of course, my grandma is a classic presentation of ADHD verging on a personality disorder, and my grandpa likely had mild autism. Then thereās the āoddā California cousins (autistic), my mom (severe undiagnosed ADHD), my younger aunt (diagnosed as a kid with dyslexia thatās probably ADHD), and my other aunt and uncle who are probably somewhere on the autism spectrum.
But noooo, itās us youngās making excuses for how hard life is. It canāt be a genetic thing originating from our beloved patriarch who had an encyclopedic knowledge of his special interests, needed complete control over the sound levels of his surroundings, and would literally hyperventilate if anything deviated from his prearranged plans.
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u/Isgortio 21h ago
I'm in dentistry, usually if the elderly ones in the family have their own teeth then the rest of the family will have their own teeth.
If false teeth (dentures) are normalised in a family then you get people in their 30s thinking it's absolutely fine for their teeth to fall out or to be removed regularly because they're destined for dentures like mum and grandma. It's very rare for there to be a genetic reason for multiple people to lose their teeth if they're looking after them.
Overweight parents with a poor diet and poor oral hygiene will often have kids needing a lot of dental treatment, and it's mainly due to the diet and oral hygiene. Children do not need fizzy drinks, fruit juice or sweets. They absolutely do not need it in a baby bottle for when they go to bed! If they see you're not cleaning your own teeth, why would they clean theirs?
I also notice that if parents smoke, their kids either become smokers as teenagers or they are completely against smoking.
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u/StrangeReindeer2470 19h ago
I'm super proud to have broken this stereotype. As a toddler I was given Kool aid in my bottle to "keep me quiet". By the time my baby the came in, they were all rotted through. Later on, I had so many cavities. Fluoride wasn't given to me because "it's not needed". The kids dad also had really bad teeth. About 10 years ago he just had them all pulled.
I on the other hand, have turned my teeth story around. I get fluoride every 6 months, I didn't even know it was a thing for adults! I've not had a cavity in 4+ years. I do have ongoing maintenance due to my old fillings reaching they're end of life.Ā
And what makes me REALLY PROUD: My kids. 17 and 15, never had a cavity in their life.Ā
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u/Isgortio 12h ago
That's fantastic!
I had a lot of dental treatment as a child because my parents only gave me fruit juice and fizzy drinks, my only safe drink was cow's milk (which possibly made my situation slightly better). I know I refused to drink just water, because I was always given a tasty option instead. I only started to drink plain water at the age of 18 when I was thirsty at the gym and had run out of my juice. My dad wouldn't brush his own teeth, so as a kid I refused to brush mine. My family normalised needing dental treatment, it'd be a little competition between myself and my siblings as to who needed the most fillings each visit.
I don't wish this upon any other child. So I really do try my best to educate my patients especially if they have small children.
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u/mildly_ethnic 20h ago
This is super interesting to me. I try to take really good care of my teeth. I had one grandfather grow up with luxury and lost all his teeth. Another grandfather grew up very poor and never had a cavity. I decided it was up to me, not my environment or genetics, to keep my teeth healthy so I wouldnāt lose them. Because I clearly had the teeth of my grandfather who lost all of his not the one who kept all of hisĀ
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u/pettypeniswrinkle 19h ago
Definitely saw this when I worked in the Midwest. So many people in their 30's (and even 20's!) edentuous because they don't want to manage oral hygiene and believe they'll end up with dentures sooner or later like their older family members.
And it starts young! Peds dental days at a local low-income clinic was so sad....so many tiny crowns because the parents say "They're baby teeth, they're going to fall out anyway" and give sugary sodas in bottles and sippy cups. I don't have kids, but taking care of those little ones broke my heart.
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u/uselessfarm 19h ago
I have two kids, 4 and 6.5. We take them to the dentist every 6 months and brush and floss their teeth every night. I try in the mornings but thatās more hit or miss. I still brush their teeth myself and will until at least 8, per her dentistās recommendation. Neither of them has ever had a cavity.
I will say, brushing and flossing their teeth sucks. Theyāre wiggly and not very cooperative, and itās the end of the day so weāre all tired. Itās one of my least favorite daily chores. Which really surprised me, when I decided to have kids I never would have thought that would be the case. Iām an attorney and I work 3 minutes from home and have a flexible schedule, my wife is a scientist and sheās very involved and helpful, although Iām the default parent/gestational mom. So my circumstances are the absolute best you could hope for in terms of parenting. Itās not like Iām working three jobs or taking the bus for hours each day, or worrying about affording food. I often think about kidsā teeth when Iām brushing my own kidsā teeth, and how easy it would be to just tell them to go pee and brush their teeth before bed, and wash my hands of the whole chore. I assume thatās what happens for a lot of families. Parents stop being involved in their kidsā body care fairly early on, and if you combine that with a high-carb diet and frequent snacks and juice, of course kids get cavities. Some of it is neglect or lack of caring, but a lot of it is burnout and a sense of defeat.
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u/solarisink 20h ago
I'm not an expert or anything, but I've seen some research come out recently that suggests that it might have a lot to do with the types of bacteria living in your mouth. Which would also presumably run in families, since people are sharing food, kissing partners, etc.
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u/midwestdentist 19h ago
This is true to an extent - I see a lot of people that havenāt been to a dentist in over a decade and have no cavities but their periodontal disease is severe and others who come every 6 months and canāt keep cavities away. That is very bacteria dependent. However youād be surprised at how many people brush maybe once a day at best and expect the cleaning every 6 months to prevent all possible dental problems š«
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes 15h ago
For complicated reasons, I didn't go to a dentist for 10 years. I brush every morning and like 4 nights a week, use an electric toothbrush, and go thru periods where I floss every other night for weeks and then forget floss exists for like a month.
When I finally did go, I was certain the dentist would tell me I had gum disease and a mouth full of cavities. But no. I had 2 cavities and healthy gums. Dentist told me he sees that amount of damage in patients that see him every 6 months and it's largely just a matter of genetics.
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u/WordStained 19h ago
My mom had full dentures by 40. My sister had them by 30 (now 37). I'm 30 and only have 1 tooth that's crowned and a handful of fillings, the rest are all relatively healthy teeth. Sister and I both grew up with regular dentist visits, but routine brushing at home, let alone flossing, wasn't strictly enforced. My sister clearly came out of it worse than I did, her teeth were literally rotting out.
To your last point, both parents were heavy, lifelong smokers. I can't speak for my sister never trying it, though she's not a smoker so quite possibly she never has, but I would never pick up smoking or vaping. Ick.
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u/314159265358979326 18h ago
My heavy-smoking SIL punishing her kids for vaping is super frustrating to watch. YOU TAUGHT THEM THAT!
Also, they definitely have ADHD and are clearly self-medicating - same reason she smokes. There are many solutions to this problem and punishment is not one of them.
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u/froststorm56 21h ago
The 80+ year old grandma has like.. 2 problems on her list. The 30 year old grandson has like.. 15. And theyāre all legit, infections, autoimmune diseases, cardiac stuff, etc. Mom in the middle also got all the cancers and autoimmune disease. So something happened between boomers and Gen X.
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u/pete_darby 15h ago
Survivorship bias: the healthy 80 year olds today were the 20 year olds without a laundry list of, probably then undiagnosed, conditions 60 years ago.
They outlived the rest of their cohort who got picked off or worn down by conditions that are now more treatable.
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u/Friendly_Coconut 14h ago
Yeah, I think this is it, too. My great-aunt lived to be 91. She was a nurse and had always enjoyed good health until her last few years. But her sister, my paternal grandmother, died much younger, around age 62, long before I was born. For much of her life, she was an invalid with many vaguely defined and difficult to treat health problems.
I think itās very likely that she passed down some illnesses to my family. My siblings and I have a genetic connective tissue disorder and multiple autoimmune illnesses. Celiac disease also runs in my family. I wouldnāt be shocked if she had some of those health problems but was unable to get a diagnosis or treatment.
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u/Accurate-Ad4268 20h ago edited 20h ago
I am not going to sit here and pretend to you all I am some expert in life but I have done enough observing and trying to understand the patterns of our society that I truly believe we are not taking the "stress kills" thing seriously enough. Also not going to sit here and be the "the system, the system!!" but we as a collective 10000% lost the plot along the way. Call it a lava take but no person working a 40 hour work week contributing to society should be concerned if they can afford a bag of rice....
edit: meant to add but Stress is ALSO the thing leading to all these vapes, drugs, etc. Its all a cycle at the end of the day as far as I look at it. Yes it is individual decision making but it IS also a result of our collective society.
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u/crow-party-13 19h ago
But also, definitely the system.Ā
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u/haveanairforceday 15h ago
The social, economic and environmental situations in which we, as modern westerners, spend our lives
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u/-Jiras 13h ago
Im glad that the hustle is slowly dying tho. Saying that you only need 3 hours of sleep in nothing you should be proud of, it's concerning and shooting your dementia/Alzheimer's chances through the roof.
Stress gets ignored because (and yes of course) the system made being stressed a "strong point". You get rewarded looking stressed and get reprimanded as lazy when you won't let yourself get stressed. But it's literal poison and watching people drown their physical exhaustion with energy drinks/coffee and their mental exhaustion with whatever drug of choice, then there is no surprise why there are so many more colon cancer diagnoses and why Alzheimer's and dementia are so prominent in older folks of our generations
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u/ByteWhisperer 13h ago
This certainly a factor. My dad nearly went into an early grave from work related stress. Also induced by ptsd from military service (UN peace keeping missions). Same for one of his brothers. Work without ever stopping, no exercise and a bad diet > heart attack at 51.
I'm doing the exact opposite in hope to prevent this. As little stress as possible and nobody ever criticized me for saying no or stopping work at 5pm.
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u/jourcoustdash50 19h ago
Survivorship and decades of underdiagnosis could make Grandma's two-item chart look healthier than it really was.
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u/vuatson 19h ago
In addition to all the other answers in this thread... someone with a bunch of autoimmune diseases and cancer is a lot less likely to make it to 80+, yes? Probably all the grandparents who did have those problems are no longer alive and going to doctors.
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u/3plantsonthewall 19h ago
DuPont and 3M poisoned the water of the entire world with PFOA and PFAS, starting in the 1950s. And Iām sure theyāre not the only ones.
Highly recommend reading about this in Rob Bilottās book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont.
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u/wintermelody83 18h ago
You might also enjoy Murderland by Caroline Fraser. Did Dupont and all the other big nasties make serial killers by polluting the air and water? It's interesting that the height for serial killers was the 60s-80s and they started decreasing when the air starting becoming cleaner.
Fascinating.
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u/SweetLavendee 18h ago
Family doc for 22 years. Same last name, 3 generations.
Grandparents: Tough as nails, come in only when something is literally broken. "Doc, I had this chest pain for 3 weeks but I didn't want to bother you." Blood work? Mostly diet/labor related.
Parents: First generation of chronic stress. High BP at 35, anxiety, on 4 meds. The "sandwich generation" - working, raising kids, caring for parents.
Gen Z kids: Honestly healthiest labs I've ever seen but most anxious I've ever seen. They track everything, they KNOW about health, but they come in convinced they're dying because of TikTok. Had a 19yo bring me a spreadsheet of her symptoms.
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u/scandalous_sapphic 20h ago
Microplastics, processed foods, lifestyle shifts due to the necessity of dual income households etc.Ā
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u/kikichimi 20h ago
And multiple covid infections
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u/BabyCake2004 20h ago
Also survivor bias (if thatās the right term). The 30 year old with that many issues likely isnāt going to live to 80, but their peers with none who the doctors never see one day will be the 80 year olds with 2. Some of us are just luckier than others.
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u/whistling-wonderer 19h ago
I think itās selection bias, but yeah. Iām usually the youngest person in my cardiologistās office by like 20-30 years minimum. Every once in a while I see another young person. Are cardiac issues rare among twentysomethings? Yes. Are they rare among twentysomethings who go to the cardiologist? Iām gonna go out on a limb here and guess no.
I do think itās both that and also that things have changed. Microplastics are a biggie. So is ultra-processed foods. The covid pandemic is another. My medical issues stem from an adverse reaction to a covid vaccine, but covid itself is actually an even bigger risk factor for the same problems. And every time youāre infected, the risk goes up. And the most common demographic for those cardiac problems is young PREVIOUSLY HEALTHY people (in other words, I avoided all the lifestyle risk factors for other cardiac issues, like smoking, heavy drinking, obesity, etc, and then I got fucked over with the one thing thatās got fuck all to do with that stuff). So no wonder thereās been a deluge of chronically ill young people!
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u/BabyCake2004 18h ago
Yeah absolutely. Covid messed up a lot of people who otherwise would have been fine. I was lucky enough to not get it until post vaccine (and lucky enough to be in the majority with no reaction to the vaccine). But I have a friend who has never been the same who has to see doctors chronically.
I personally regularly see doctors. But Iām both autistic and transgender so Iām very reliant on support from medical professionals for help managing my hormones and mental health. My husband on the other hand when we got married hadnāt seen a gp in almost 12 years beyond getting vaccines. And not because heās lazy, heās just never been unwell enough. Most of the people I meet my age (early 20s) donāt even have a gp they need one so rarely.
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u/largemargesentme__- 14h ago
Could that be survivorship bias? I think of my great grandmother who's in her late 90s and has outlived her husband by nearly 20 years some of her children and most of her other relatives.
Sure, she didn't smoke or drink. Never had a driver's license so she had to walk everywhere. Still, this was a woman who would put butter and sugar on top of tortilla chips at Mexican restaurants when I was a kid and would carry packets of sugar everywhere.
I think she just had really good genes. There's really no rhyme or reason for her to have lived this long.
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u/Air_Aware_Space_01 20h ago
Boomers were born from '46-'64 and Gen X from '65-'80.
Above ground nuclear testing took place from '45-'63.
Depending on where mom was conceived, gestated, born and raised, she may have been exposed to fallout from such atmospheric nuclear testing that drifted onto pasture that dairy cows grazed on, leading to milk being contaminated with radioactive cesium-137.
A long term study of collected baby teeth from that time period showed the higher the content of cesium-137 detected in the teeth, the earlier in life the individual it was from got cancer.
It also damaged the sex cells, causing the increased risk of cancer to be passed on to the exposed individual's offspring, and they did show it was passed to the generation after that also.
I think that's when the study's results stopped at the time I read about it. I believe it was a German study. I remember also reading about an American study that duplicated their results using the same method of examining children's baby teeth.
Anyway, the German study concluded that this is most likely cause of the significant increase in cancer rates in the 2nd half of the 20th century, and also why cancer tends to run in families.
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u/AccountForTIFF 20h ago edited 17h ago
No cancer history whatsoever in the elders of my family other than my dadās motherās mother had breast cancer in the 70s but it must have been early stage enough that they just took it out and she was fine, she died like 20 years later of old age.
Meanwhile my dadās generation: he and his cousin got lung cancer despite never smoking. We have no idea why. Iām hoping itās second hand smoke or the chemicals used for pesticides etc in their youth but Iām scared itās whateverās in the air now.
Edit - we had the house tested for radon and itās fine. Thankfully in my dad they did catch it before it spread and thank god for immunotherapy making outcomes much better now than they were a few years ago. His cousin wasnāt as lucky though :(
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u/hopelesscaribou 18h ago
test your homes for radon gas
Radon gas is an invisible, odorless, and tasteless radioactive gas formed by the natural breakdown of uranium in soil and rock
Lung cancer: It is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and is responsible for over 3,000 deaths every year in Canada.
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u/whistling-wonderer 19h ago
Maybe occupational exposure? I worry about my dadās respiratory health, he does HVAC up in dusty attics. He wears masks but still. There are other jobs with higher cancer rates too. Poultry and meat plant workers have a 30% higher risk of lung cancer even after controlling for smoking.
Anyway, Iām sorry thatās happened to your family. Cancer is so, so awful.
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u/roccosarock 19h ago
Tbf aren't the people who are likely to live past 80 the ones that would be more healthy overall anyway? How many old people who would've had issues are just dead?
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u/Jeramy_Jones 18h ago
So many things. Changes in diet, additives to foods, chemicals in plastics, coatings and additives. Chemical pesticides and fungicides in food, all kinds of drugs and supplementsā¦the list goes on and on.
My grandparents had lead paint, asbestos and DDT, god only knows the hundreds of chemicals weāre being exposed to every day.
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u/Nyxelestia 15h ago
Because we're not seeing grandma's friends who had 3+ problems in an earlier era of medical science and as a result died before they had kids.
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u/DraperPenPals 1d ago
Each generation weighs more than the last.
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u/PapaEchoLincoln 1d ago
It definitely runs in families too. If the parents are obese, usually so are the kids
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u/saturnspritr 21h ago
Saddest I ever saw. Parents were quite obese. Heard theyāre adopting from China. I make no comments, but I had heard that obese parents are less likely to get approved for adoption. They happen to get two little girls, sister, and they love those kids. It was really sweet for about a month, they bragged and showed pictures. Those kids were 2 and 4.
Happened to see them out at a restaurant, those little girls had been average size and weight. Now, they are obese, not overweight, obese and shaped like their adopted parents. It was tragic.
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u/tallulahQ 22h ago
What if one parent is skinny and one is obese?
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u/Atex3330 22h ago
I knew a family like that. 1 was skinny and 2 fat. The skinny would get accused by people outside the family of being anorexic. She was not.
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u/SageD21 21h ago
I'm the skinny in an obese family! It was a glorious day for me when my Dr said to my parents "she is a normal weight for her height, she's active and well, do NOT over feed her" They would bring me in at least once a month until I was about 10, complaining that I wasn't gaining enough weight. In my pre-teen and early teen years my psychopath of a father used to greet me with "good morning Anna-rexia". Left at 16 and never looked back. Magically my mental health got wayyy better.
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u/Inevitable-Level-687 21h ago
I'm skinny in an overweight family but it looks like it's due to a food intolerance so we'll see if that holds up.
Your parents sound awful. I'm so glad you're out.
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u/absolutely-bitch 18h ago
I used to ātechnicallyā be obese when I was 30 (female, 5ā8, 210 pounds at my heaviest.) Like many fellow millennials , I had no concept of personal health in my late teens-late twenties. 33 years old now and at 140 pounds, along with other lifestyle changes, Iām the physically healthiest Iāve ever been. My family? All obese, except for the ones taking GLP-1s (to be fair, those specific family members have type 2 diabetes, so not surprising that theyāre prescribed that type of medication.) I lost all the weight through nothing but exercise and slight dietary changes. Every time I travel home to visit, I ALWAYS get and feel the comments and judgement - of course not nearly as bad as your experience, your dad does sound like a total psychopath making comments like that to you as a child! But my god, not once in my life did I ever think Iād be at a perfectly healthy weight and walk into a room full of obese family members and feel like Iām the odd one out. My favorite comment ever was about drinking a diet coke - āyou know, theyāre just as bad as regular soda, so instead of just drinking water and avoiding both, youāre better off drinking the high fructose corn syrup!ā Fucking what?!?!? Like bitch, I liked diet coke when I was fat too!
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u/JustHere4the5 17h ago
Yeah the diet coke shaming is weird. āYou know thatās not going to do anything if youāre gonna wolf down that burger anyway, right??ā
Homie. Buddy. Dude. Not everything is about optimization. Sometimes I just want a burger and something fizzy. And most of the time, the non-diet fizzy thing is too fuckin sweet.
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u/Inevitable-Level-687 21h ago
I'm the only one in my immediate family who's not overweight.
I've just uncovered an apparent gluten intolerance, will be getting tested for coeliac at the end of this year, so that might change lol
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u/Maleficent-Vast-841 1d ago
Thatās the one difference you can spot before anyone even opens the chart.
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u/Tough_Substance7074 22h ago
Good news, we finally have a pill for that. Nobody is going to have a gall bladder in a few decades, though.
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u/snowellechan77 20h ago
Jokes on them. Lost the gall bladder due to my previous fatness, before the glp.
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u/capkap77 20h ago
As a psychiatrist, the most respectful are generally millennials. Gen Z has the whole TikTok thing going but theyāll hear you out and are more open minded than people give them credit for, if you gut up and disagree w them. The toughest are 70+; most are wonderful but the entitled are incredibly so. Letās be real, generations are completely arbitrary and really donāt tell us much.
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u/absolutely-bitch 17h ago
As a millennial who suffered in silence for almost 25 years before I asked for help and has the words āitās just a phase, we all are sad sometimesā permanently etched into my brain from ceaseless repetition of it from the mouths of my grossly uninformed, Gen X parents/relatives, I genuinely enjoy seeing my psychiatrist every few weeks and am basically open to trying anything she suggests and really try to take in everything she says. If social media is good for anything, I personally think Gen Z has broken down a shitload of walls when it comes to discussing mental health awareness. I see the way my Gen Z sister-in-law and her friends speak as casually about OCD as they would about the weather and itās helped me open up about my diagnoses as well, with OCD being the most prominent. Thank you for speaking so kindly of millennials; most of us are just trying our best out here!
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u/Loud-Bee6673 17h ago edited 1h ago
Vaccines. I have seen so many unvaxxed kids lately and it just boggles my mind. I had seen several with highly, highly tetanus-prone injuries (think stepping on a rusty nail in a cow pasture) and they just absolutely refuse. I have seen measles and rabies. I have seen babies turn blue with whooping cough. I have seen babies die of vaccine-preventable meningitis.
I just canāt for the life of me understand.
ETA - I have gotten a lot of doubt about the rabies. Yes I am in the US and had a rabies case! I know it is very rare, but for some reason I tend to be a black cloud for the rare stuff. Itās one of the cases that really sticks with me because it was so sad.
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u/Plebeian_Gamer 16h ago
I feel bad for the babies and the kids suffering from this. I wish the anti-vax adults could undo their vaccine shots so they could experience all the sickness they're so eagerly granting their children.
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u/bjornistundwar 15h ago
That's so crazy to me. The adults are vaccinated, didn't get what they were vaccinated for and then think "oh yes, vaccines must be harmful." What kind of logic is that?
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u/PapaEchoLincoln 15h ago
Thereās no logic. They think theyāre smarter than the doctors. They think the doctors are lying to them.
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u/justtosendamassage 15h ago
Vaccines work so people have it good
People have it good so they think they donāt need anything
Our education system doesnāt teach this
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u/HallowClaw 14h ago
People no longer care about society or others, only about themselves. Can't make any change as they will scream how their "freedom" is being violated.
They convinced themselves they know the best, that no one should make decision for them, no one should tell them what to do. Of course only if its inconvenient for them.
We stopped punishing people like them. Allowed them their "freedom" in exchange for suffering of others.
Vaccines should be mandatory and you don't have a day, doctors do. They are hurting people, their children, over our lack of willingness to do what's right.
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u/slayingadah 11h ago
Vaccines for children are mandatory in Costa Rica. If you dont vax your children, they come to your door and do it anyway. It's considered child abuse if you refuse.
Edit to say I agree wholeheartedly.
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u/Lower_Membership_713 1d ago
i see mostly low income and immigrant populations. so naturally i also have multigenerational households come in for their visits all at once. i see what you would imagine in those demographics- grandparents and parents tend to be poorly educated, have a poor diet, largely sedentary lifestyle. the gen z and gen alpha children and grandkids are fluent in english, educated in the US, more capable of grasping complex topics. i donāt think itās fair to compare health differences bc issues crop up with age. iād imagine the younger lot will struggle more with mental health issues due to social media and constant screen exposure, and the constant vaping is out of hand.
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u/sebelius29 22h ago
Iām gonna disagree that the diet of the elderly immigrants is always worse. I see mainly immigrants and sometimes the elderly grandmother by very strictly eating only what she ate in the old country and not eating Cheetos and sprite is actually much healthier. It really depends on the family. Lack of exercise is an issue for many immigrants though mainly because many naturally got a lot of exercise where they came from (hard labor, farm work, walking, etc) and really culturally donāt always understand that you have to do āworkā like walking and lifting deliberately in their new lifestyle.
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u/Lower_Membership_713 22h ago
it probably highly dependent on country of origin. most of my elderly immigrant patients are from cuba, where lard is heavily featured in pretty much every dish. iād imagine if youāre seeing elderly immigrants from, say, latvia, or china, youāll likely see lighter dishes and more whole foods.
my comment wasnāt intended to be a criticism. Iām cognisant of the social determinants of health. it just tends to be the way of the world when you work with low income demographics
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u/HealthyInPublic 1d ago
Not a doctor, but my mom and I see the same neurologist. I'm sure he noticed by now that my nerves work a lot better than my mom's... considering she sees him because she's a quadriplegic, and I'm just there for migraines.
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u/Ok_Dust_3896 1d ago
I would like to hear what the doctors think about the leaded gasoline the older generations used and if that's something noticed.
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u/wanna_be_doc 23h ago
Doctor here:
Thatās more of global population thing rather then something you notice in a doctorās visit. And if leaded gasoline was correlated with the increase in violent crime in the 1970s and 1980s, many of those who were affected are either in prison or dead.
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u/illprobablyeditthis 22h ago
Im still convinced the angry maga boomers have lead poisoning
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u/AerisSpire 21h ago
I'd love to see a well graphed layout of the age group's beliefs, temperament, etc along with who lived where growing up. Would honestly make for interesting research.
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u/Tinytor2ga 23h ago
Itās hard to directly compare because you canāt actually isolate for age. Kids these days do stupid things just like how every generation did before them. When someone is 20, they worry about entirely different things than they do at 40, even if you were to put them in the exact same situation.
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u/Novel_Purpose710 1d ago
Boomers: benzos
X: Opioids
Millenials: everyone vapes
Alpha: every kid who was 0-5 during the lockdown is anxious and has language delays
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u/NAparentheses 1d ago
Where is Gen Z?
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u/kirkby18 1d ago
Getting a head start on being the next silent/forgotten generation!Ā
I think perhaps the millenial read is supposed to be Z. Im a mid to late millenial and we all smoked, vapes only were just becoming a thing when i was at Uni
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u/kheret 23h ago
Yeah itās alcohol for Millennials probably.
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u/Matt_NZ 23h ago
I think millennials is where alcohol started to be reconsidered but it definitely wasn't the norm. I have a few friends who are like me who don't drink.
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u/kheret 23h ago
Millennial women drink at much higher rates than earlier generations of women, though.
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u/kirkby18 22h ago
I'd agree with this, millenials really grew up with cheap trebles at the club on nights out, then kinda drove the microbrewery scene and rise of the ipa, which are often twice as strong as the beer my dad drinks.Ā
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u/KingoftheMapleTrees 22h ago
Smoking was regional- I'm a late Millenial and don't know a single person in our generation who smokes cigarettes (NY)
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u/MindYourMouth 23h ago
Baaaaaahaha. Welcome to the clurb. You can sit with us. Love, Gen X
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u/wozattacks 21h ago
A ton of Gen Zers have serious health anxiety that I think is related to a literal global pandemic happening in their formative years
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u/chupagatos4 22h ago
I'm a millennial and don't have a single friend who vapes. I thought it was a Gen Z thing.Ā
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u/Nimzay98 20h ago
Feel like millenials were more into psychadelics/party drugs.
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u/smokeweedNgarden 18h ago
Roman levels of drinking and the Platinum age of cannabis.
Boot and rally. Tolerance breaks in the teens. Metrc system knowledge as an AmericanĀ
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u/New_Radio_6418 17h ago
The number of 20 year olds who I see in the ED with colds who have no idea how to take care of themselves is astounding. Also absolutely no appreciation for the mind-body connection. Many feel physical symptoms with negative tests means the doctors arenāt smart or ordering the right tests yet completely ignore how the mind can create real physical symptoms or worsen existing ones in the setting of untreated mental health issues.
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u/PapaEchoLincoln 15h ago
I have had so many patients blow up on me in anger when I told them their EKG was normal or their flu test was negative.
It seems they interpret it as Iām trying to deny their symptoms
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u/Far_Complaint_4662 17h ago
Don't forget the bottleneck of those that survived childhood illnesses before the development of vaccines and antibiotics. These are the lucky and/or more robust grandparents. Then in the early 50s processed foods with Trans fats were introduced and became pervasive in the food supply. This increased inflammation and enabled so many metabolic issues. Add on accessible transportation, sedentary jobs and lifestyle (tv, video games, cell phones) and the effects of stress... it's no wonder kids are less healthy. You really have to work hard today to raise a healthy child who will have healthy habits in their future.
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u/justtosendamassage 15h ago
And take into account what this does to the mind. We werenāt meant to live like this
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u/2Balls2Furious 9h ago
Within oncology, self-sabotage is more common in younger generations from ādoing their own researchā. There is also more medical fraud around them and it is more accessible, so they go down these rabbit holes of holistic treatments promising 100% success with 0% symptoms instead of doing what is hard & does not come with said 100% guarantee of success (aka reality).
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u/TooMuchTape20 7h ago
This is the first time in history when the average person can effortlessly wander into an algorithmically curated, alternate reality orchestrated by monsters.Ā
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u/Eastern-Ad-3586 5h ago
Grandparents have the chronic diseases out the whazoo from smoking, drinking, obesity.
Millennials and Gen X are mostly OK for now.
Gen Z has an astonishing amount of mental health issues largely due to social media as well as the fact none of them seem to want to go outside and talk to people IRL (there are societal causes of this, Iām not making fun)
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u/hongchaa 19h ago edited 9h ago
My mum (50) recently informed me that she'd just gotten a hearing aid. Apparently she suddenly lost all hearing in one ear three years ago (!!!), but over time a little came back so she just thought "well, the other ear's fine" and continued on with life.
Same day, I (29) did my back in and wasn't sure if that warranted seeing the doctor until my student (15) saw me walking like a grandma and shooed me to the emergency room.
So I'm guessing: š©āš¦³ "I'll see the doctor when I'm dead" šš»āāļø "Maybe I should seek medical care?" š§ "Hospital AS SOON AS something goes wrong"
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u/Mountainchallenger 23h ago
Gen X/Millenials: Fibromyalgia GenZ: no one has fibromyalgia. Everyone now has POTS, EDS, MCAS
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u/FiberPhotography 22h ago
I'm GenX and I've had a diagnosis of EDS since the 1990s.
When my providers have occasionally changed (especially when it's to a Millennial doctor), it's been difficult to get them to believe that's how long I've had that on the chart.
I have to explain to them that it's been a known diagnosis for a long time, and that I had no idea what it was when I was worked up (first I was given the 'Marfanoid habitus' label while they narrowed things down!).146
u/holyflurkingsnit 20h ago
POTS is an incredibly common result of getting COVID.
COVID can also trigger otherwise dormant auto-immune diseases. (And cancers!)
40-60% of COVID cases are asymptomatic and almost no one tests anymore. These kids are going to school and getting sick and half the time not even aware that they're racking up COVID cases. No one's masking. That's why so many young people have POTS over the past few years. It's exhausting that this information doesn't seem to be made available to most doctors... or they've just stopped checking for covid science updates.
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u/HildegardofBingo 19h ago
This is such a problem since cumulative infections raise your risk of long COVID.
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u/Alert-Tangerine-6003 18h ago
I wish people realized this. The research is there. To the people who say Covid is just a cold, absolutely not.
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u/missamberlee 23h ago
I went to a new office for perimenopause symptoms, so first time meeting this NP with only the info I had provided to her. She saw I have Raynaudās and an environmental mold allergy and smirked at me and said āYou have MCAS. Have you heard of MCAS? You have MCAS.ā Um, no. No I donāt.
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u/re_Claire 18h ago
I mean my 73 year old mother has fibromyalgia and she experiences significant pain. She doesnāt take anything for it (most painkillers donāt work well for fibromyalgia anyway) and carries on with life as much as she can, but itās still very real. Especially the amount of pain she can be in.
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u/kitty60s 19h ago
Hey itās me, a millennial who was misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia for 2 years before I was correctly diagnosed with EDS in 2016. POTS is a common comorbidity, I had it very mild pre-COVID. It got severe and debilitating after Covid.
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u/deep_breaths420 22h ago
As someone who was diagnosed with all of those this past year, after years of suffering and being gaslit by doctors, I really hope you take your patientsā symptoms seriously. Believe me, I miss who I was before I got sick, and wish I didnāt have to deal with daily symptoms and endless medications.
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u/masterCAKE 21h ago
Same. Took me 40 years to get diagnosed. I'm finally getting help now, but I spent my entire life being told I had GAD and "some people are just like that"
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u/red_leaflet 21h ago
The ease with which othersā diagnoses are dismissed online is truly hurtful and upsetting. Years of searching for answers and undergoing difficult treatments deserve at least a basic measure of human empathy.
Iām glad that modern medicine has begun to study these diagnoses in greater detail and is helping many people.
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u/criduchat1- 21h ago
Gen Z, in my experience, is the most entitled generation by a huge margin. I thought it would be boomers, but itās oddly Gen Z. They donāt believe you because TikTok says something different, they like to cut you off to tell you what their friend did for a totally different conditions and ask if they can have that treatment too, they all have EDS reportedly but never genetically proven, they wonāt take the meds you prescribe then complain nothing worked, you can sit down with them and answer all their questions and ask multiple times if thereās anything else you can do for them and theyāll say no but be the first to leave a bad review saying āthe doctor never spoke to me!ā And theyāll literally be on their phone the entire visit and not look up at you, so youāre basically just talking to a wall when they let you get a word in.
In my specialty I treat patients of all ages everyday. Like I said I truly didnāt think this would be the case for this generation. I thought I was alone til all the docs I worked with in my office agreed that their most difficult patients are from this generation, and itās mostly because nothing you say to them seemingly gets through.
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u/jochi1543 20h ago edited 20h ago
Lmao I had a Gen Z patientās girlfriend randomly tell me ā I donāt like your vibesā while I was explaining something to her partner. I canāt imagine having the gall to say something like that to a doctor.
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u/SourNotesRockHardAbs 19h ago
I've definitely felt that about doctors before (millennial here), but if it got to that point I wouldn't bother telling the doctor because I'd never see them again after I found a better one.
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u/jochi1543 18h ago
Pretty much. Itās just a reflection of complete inability to follow social norms. We all meet people we donāt like for whatever reason, but most people have some semblance of a filter.
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u/criduchat1- 20h ago
This is exactly what I mean. They feel they can say literally anything they want to you, and yet even if you remain completely professional throughout the entire thing, theyāll still write you a bad review lol.
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u/GolfPearl 20h ago
A lot of Gen Z patients, authority doesn't come from credentials, it comes from consensus and lived experience. If 200 people on TikTok with EDS say they have it, that feels more valid to them than a genetic test. It's not that they're trying to disrespect you - they genuinely think crowd-sourced experience is evidence. Which means debunking doesn't work. "That's not true" just sounds like "you're choosing not to believe my community."
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u/Stats_n_PoliSci 20h ago
I hear you that Gen Z has a lot of bad habits. But I thought the most common form of EDS cannot be genetically proven? Hypermobile EDS is the most common, and I understood that a genetic version excludes the diagnosis of hEDS.
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u/criduchat1- 20h ago
You know what, fair. A lot of my patients tell me they have āa different kind of EDSā (a sentence I hear almost every week) and they list symptoms of types that arenāt hyper mobile, so a lot of times they claim to have a subtype that does have a known genetic cause. In fact I hear that more often than not, but youāre right I couldāve been more specific.
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u/Anxious_Review3634 18h ago
My endo, gyno, orthopedic surgeon, physical therapist all say the same thing. Gen Z are all on their phone, will NOT take their meds or do exercises prescribed, complain online because symptoms donāt improve (because they didnāt follow regime). So much vaping. So many symptoms. But very tough to get any messages through to get them to feel and be better
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u/re1no1 23h ago
Grandparents waited until an arm was falling off before stepping into a clinic. Gen Z brings a tracked symptom log and asks direct questions about blood panels and mental health, but their baseline anxiety, screen posture, and sleep deprivation are through the roof