Are stroke patients getting younger?

There's been a lot of news lately about how U.S. stroke patients are getting younger:

"... while stroke patients between the ages of 20 and 54 made up nearly 13 percent of all stroke patients in 1993 and 1994, that figure rose to just shy of 19 percent by 2005.

The result: In the interim, the average age at which strokes now occur has dropped significantly, down from roughly 71 years old in the mid-1990s to about 69 a decade later.

"This is pretty important, and a pretty big jump," said study lead author Dr. Brett Kissela, professor and vice chairman of neurology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "And what it means is that even though young people typically feel like they're healthy and that a stroke can't happen to them, the fact is that our study is evidence that that is not true."

Mine happened at age 39 - so it's vital that every know the stroke signs and know what to do.