Overweight children and young people with diabetes have a significantly higher risk of having strokes decades before their healthier peers, a new study has found.

“This is scary and very concerning,” says Dr. Brett Kissela, the study’s lead author and an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. “It shows that stroke is not just a disease of the elderly.”

The study, released Wednesday, showed an elevated rate of stroke among African-Americans and whites ages 20 to 45. But the stroke rate among young whites doubled, from 12 to 25 per 100,000.

Obese children, young diabetics at increased stroke risk, study finds – Medicine – Kentucky.com