Men's Health Week

It was Men’s Health week Jun 13 – 19 and I had the pleasure of talking to the Talk Ten Tuesday host Chuck Buck last week (Tuesday Jun 21)  to offer some thoughts and insights for their listeners and in particular for women thinking about any men in their lives

 
Most women know about their own health but not so much about men yet most women have men in their lives – sons, brothers, fathers, partners. Here are some of the highlights of the challenges in men’s Health
More men are born than women but that lead disappears quickly – in 1920 women outlived men by 1 year that’s now up to 5 years women outlive men. Having a “Y” Chromosome is not the reason for the poorer health of men.
Men “lead” in the top 15 causes death with the exception of Alzheimer’s (and that’s because men don’t live as long and as a result experience less Alzheimer’s).

This is the Mars vs Venus Gender gap in health. Men, like women have some diseases that are specific to them – prostate disease for example, but despite 1 in 6 being diagnosed with prostate cancer only 1 in 35 die from the disease. But most diseases are a shared problems – they strike both men and women. The leading issues for both gender’s are:

Heart Disease

• Cardiovascular – men lead in heart un healthiness – but ladies are catching up
• Heart disease and stroke – leading cause of death
• Men develop atherosclerosis ~5 years earlier than women
• Diet, Exercise, and fitness – don’t forget sleep
• Cholesterol, blood pressure

If you want to explore the gender differences and causes of death head over to World Life Expectancy

Cancer

Lung cancer remains a threat – tobacco causes 90% of lung cancer and is causing ~158,000 deaths each year but there are gender differences; ~85,000 in men and ~72,000 in women (that’s more than enough to fill the Superdome every year)

Mental Health

But when it comes to Mental Health, Depression and Suicide we thought this affected men more than women but this may just be that men hide their feelings better and men also tend to seek help less for depression and while women attempt suicide more than men, more men die of suicide as they are more “successful”:

• 8th leading cause of death in men – and higher in young men (higher by x3.5)
• White males 7 in 10 of suicides
• Highest in middle age
• Its been rising
• >44k per year die from suicide
• Doctors “lead” the professions with the highest number of suicides followed closely by dentists
• Male Female Suicide ration is ~3:1

That’s about 100 people per day who commit suicide

Diabetes

“The high sugar of diabetes is anything but sweet”

The sugar is a slow poison inducing:

• Heart attacks
• strokes
• blindness
• kidney failure, and
• amputations

If you were born after the year 2000 as a boy your chances of developing Diabetes is 1 in 3

“The combination of diabetes and obesity may be erasing some of the reductions in heart disease risk we’ve had over the last few decades”

So what should women do – as they should for themselves, encourage exercise (30 minutes per day reduces the chances of diabetes by 50% for men)  and a balanced and healthy diet. Not ignoring problems and focusing on prevention helping men seek medical help, but above all give them a hug and help them share and talk about their feelings

 
 

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Tagged as Cancer, Mens Health, Suicide