The phrase “the 30s are breathing down my neck, Marce” (taken, and slightly changed, from Betty La Fea and the character with the hairy girl who complained regarding debts instead of thirty) became famous on social networks.
Also very common are memes of thirty-somethings who lament physical pain or conversations between friends in which they suffer from not having the energy of their twenties, but does that generation’s body hurt more today?
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The answer, according to Juan José Amaya, a general practitioner at Clínica CES, is that it is not possible to classify all patients between 30 and 39 years of age with a particular pathology, not all of them suffer from pain that perhaps previous generations did not have, “but they do Today we live in a different society in which these adults are subjected to more stress and difficult situations and perhaps that makes them more prone to mental illnesses and others that can cause more symptoms.
And it is not that previous generations did not have stress, it has always existed, as noted by John Fredy Castro Álvarez, microbiologist, teacher and leader of the Neurosciences and Aging group at Uniremington, but now we have the possibility of being diagnosed for everything that the stress generates in the body.
Castro brings the example of fibromyalgia, a condition that causes pain throughout the body, sleep problems, fatigue, and often emotional and mental distress and which, as explained by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the precise cause is not known.
Chronic pain?
Dr. Amaya specifies that this type of pathology is not common in a 30-year-old person: “Chronic pain is one that lasts more than three to six months or lasts beyond what it takes to resolve its underlying cause, that is, if a person fractures and when they heal they continue to have pain, that would be considered chronic pain.”
And since that is not common in a thirty-something that is why other causes are sought in mental pathologies such as anxiety and depression that have been closely related to chronic pain.
The advantage that we have today, according to the specialists consulted, is that now there is more information, many ways to find the cause of particular pains that younger people may feel (even from genetics) and a greater awareness that the mental plays a complementary role in physical health.
On the other hand, it cannot be ignored that each generation has had its own struggles and ailments. The microbiologist notes that the immune system of a 30-year-old today is very different from that of a 30-year-old in the last century and now faces fewer challenges thanks to a better sanitation system, clean water or better health care. health, and that the immune system is less busy, according to some hypotheses, raises the possibility of increased chances of autoimmune diseases in very young people. A matter that to date is still being studied.
Amaya concludes that although today there is no guide for how often a person enters 30 to 39 years a preventive medical check-up must be done, there are programs in health centers and some EPS that work in consultations for healthy young people or healthy adults to provide interventions that allow early detection of signs and symptoms of different diseases and thus reduce risks.
And if you are currently in your thirties with severe pain in some part of your body, and even if you are younger or older, don’t blame age and go to the doctor to find out the cause (physical and mental of your pain) and remember that the last thing you should do is self-medicate.
