Men's Health: Where did we go wrong?

Us guys can be pretty daft...at least when it comes to our health. June 9th to June 15th was men's health week and it is as good a time as any for us men to take an honest look at ourselves and ask: Am I healthy? If the answer is "no", "not as healthy as I could be", or "Are you kidding - I played football in high school", it may be time to figure out how you can answer that question with a confident "yes".

Here are some less-than-cheery facts about men's health that can hopefully act as a wake-up call.

Compared to women, men...

• Have higher death rates for all 15 leading causes of death (except Alzheimer's disease) and die more than five years younger.
• Represent 50% of the work force, yet account for 94% of all on-the-job fatalities.
• Know less about health and take less responsibility for it.
• Are less likely to see themselves as ill or susceptible to disease or injury.

Why Men Die Younger than Women

• They have less-healthy diets
• They have higher blood pressure and do less to control it
• They sleep less
• They smoke more
• They engage in more criminal activity
• They have smaller social networks and less intimate and active social relationships

Other Men's Health Stats

• On average, a man aged 16 to 24 has a health check only once every seven years while a man aged 25-39 has a check once every five years.
• Since the late 1980s, the most common cause of death among men aged 15 to 44 has been suicide.
• For men, depression is often accompanied by irritability, anger, risk-taking and aggression. And while there is also no evidence that more men get depressed than women, it is proven that they are less likely to talk about it or ask for any kind of help.

From a recent study conducted by PruHealth from the "KeepTheDoctorAway" website:

• One in ten men want to get in shape before holidays so they can 'flex on the beach', while two out of every five men embarked on a new diet and fitness regime simply to get healthier.
• More than half of British men started a health kick last year - and almost a quarter of UK men are still managing to keep up the healthy changes.
• A quarter of men (24 per cent) now admit to regularly using anti-wrinkle cream or moisturiser (I'm suddenly reminded of a line in "The Full Monty". "Anti-wrinkle cream there may be..." (you may know the rest).)
  • A fifth (20 per cent) said they went on a diet or started getting fit specifically for a special occasion or when starting a new job.
• One in ten men admitted staying off the beers was hardest to do.
• The average man spends £1,144 each year on alcohol and post-drink snacks, with one in five regularly snacking on fried foods, such as kebabs and takeaways - more than double the amount of women.
• Over a third of men said they find it hard to resist sweets and foods with a high-calorie intake - not surprising when just under half admit to regularly snacking on chips at work or on the way there, and 43 per cent indulge in chocolate too.

What to do with this

Here's the good news... you CAN change your life. Starting today in fact. Make a commitment to yourself, your family and anyone else close to you that you are deciding to become healthy. Bite the bullet and go get a check-up - this can be part of a benchmark to gauge progress. The road to health is a bumpy one, but the rewards are boundless.

References:
www.menshealth.org
www.menshealthweek.org
www.menshealthnetwork.org
www.ismh.org/ismh/english/home.htm