Hello everyone! I’m not sure if you’re aware of it but this is National Men’s Health Week! Let’s celebrate! I just want to take a little time and talk about some of the issues men face with their health.
Society is a funny thing sometimes. We all know about the very real pressures women face in our society as far as how they should look and feel, etc. It’s a very unfortunate thing that can be extremely damaging. Well, men face pressures from society as well.
A national survey in 2011 showed that women were three times more likely to see their doctor on a regular basis even though men on average die younger than women and have higher mortality rates for heart disease, cancer and strokes.
Why is that? Well, this is me putting on my amateur psychologists hat but I think we’re still trying to be the “tough guy” in this regard. After all, would this guy see a doctor?
Our job is to provide and protect our family. We should just suck it up and do what we need to do. Right?
Well, here are some facts:
Men live an average of 4.4 years shorter than women.
Men are 6 times more likely to die from alcohol related causes.
Three out of four suicides are men.
Men report significantly lower life satisfaction than women in the UK Government’s national well-being survey.
Men are three times as likely to report frequent drug use than women (4.2% and 1.4% respectively) and more than two thirds of drug-related deaths occur in men.
There are many more disturbing statistics out there but the bottom line seems to be that, on average, men aren’t doing some of the things they need to do to take care of themselves and much of this seems to be on a stress related or emotional level. Remember that tough guy thing?
I’m going to celebrate Men’s Health Week by making an appointment for my annual check-up. We recently changed insurance and had to switch doctors so I’ve been slacking on that. I’ll do it today!
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Level 2 Lean Eating Coach, FMS 2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley MitchRFitness.com MitchRFitness@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/mitchrothbardtfitness/ 510-754-7113
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