Is Beau Biden Too Young to Have a Stroke? Sadly, No.

As reported on The Gaggle earlier today, Vice President Joe Biden's eldest son, Beau, was admitted to a hospital today after suffering what doctors believe to be a mild stroke. A White House statement released shortly after the news broke said Beau was "fully alert, in stable condition and has full motor and speech skills." No additional information has been made available, but Dr. Irene Katzan, director of the Primary Stroke Care Center at the Cleveland Clinic, told NEWSWEEK that given Biden's quick recovery, he likely suffered an ischemic stroke, in which an artery to the brain somehow becomes blocked, cutting off blood flow and oxygen supply. (A more serious form of stroke occurs when a blood vessel breaks completely, and blood seeps into the brain.)

At 41, the Delaware attorney general doesn't seem like someone who is at high risk of a stroke: according to the American Heart Association, more than 75 percent of stroke victims in the U.S. are 65 or older. But Katzan says it's not unheard of in a younger man.

Katzan, who has never treated Biden, says that when she sees younger patients who have suffered a stroke, she explores a short list of possible causes that include blood-clotting disorders, irregular heart rhythms, and a defect known as patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small hole in the upper chambers of the heart that can cause an arterial stroke. There is also the possibility that Biden's stroke was caused by "dissection," in which the innermost layer of a blood vessel tears, creating a flap that blocks the artery. This is common in people who have recently experienced head trauma, whether from a car accident or a football game. And it's not always immediately recognizable. "Women who lay their heads back in a washing basin at the beauty parlor, that can be enough to cause a dissection," Katzan says.

The most important thing, of course, is that Biden pinpoints the cause and makes the necessary changes.

"He’s at increased risk of having another stroke in the future, and he’s a young guy," Katzan says. "Whatever the cause was for this stroke, it needs to to be carefully evaluated so that it doesn't happen again."