Youth and Health, No Longer Synonymous in the U.S.

7/10/2013 9:17PM

Over the years, successive generations of Americans have expected to live longer than their parents. But growing health problems among the nation's youth are now threatening to change that. MarketWatch's Jim Jelter explains why that could have dire consequences for the economy. (Photo: Getty Images)

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the ... over the years successive generations of Americans expected little wonder that parents ... the growing health problems among the nation's youth threatens to snap a streak ... you can have dire consequences for the economy ... by Amgen Jelter MarketWatch ... When it comes to general health today's senior citizens are healthier than they've ever been ... but that's not the case for young people ... whose health ... especially the cardiovascular health ... is deteriorating in his heart disease is declining for their parents' and grandparents' generations ... according to the Department of Health and Human Services heart disease lol overall thirty percent of the past decade ... however among twenty five to thirty four year olds ... deaths from heart failure actually increased five percent ... this was also the only age group to see an increase in mortality ... it's a troubling trend but the reasons behind it or not hard to say that our ... old dissident ... hypertension diabetes and high cholesterol ... all of these were on the rise among people under forty ... obesity is up more than fifty percent over the past twenty five years ... that's alarming but it's up a staggering seventy five percent among teenagers ... one in five U S teenagers can now be medically classified as obese a sign just a little chubby but severely overweight ... this of course is ticking time bomb in terms of their health ... means more of them will develop type two diabetes ... they will have heart attacks in their thirties instead of say their fifties or sixties ... and more of them will be out of the workforce and on disability ... with before hitting retirement ... unless the trend is reversed that'll put huge strain on the nation's economy ... accelerating already soaring healthcare costs ... it also threatens to topple one of the pillars of President Obama's health care reform ... but the localized if you're in for healthy young Americans ... can be counted on to balance out the high cost of caring for the sick and elderly ... if the kids end up sicker than their parents ... but throws the whole thing on its head it also goes right to healthcare spawn want ... the American heart Association predicts the medical cost of treating coronary heart disease ... which totaled two hundred billion dollars into thousandnine ... will double within the next seventeen years ...