The sad state of men's health

Last Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald posed the question: Is the health system failing men? And sought comments from four experts: a cardiologist; a professor of primary care at the University of Western Sydney; the Chief Executive of the Cancer Council of NSW and a general practitioner from rural Victoria.

Only the general practitioner rebuffed the robot-like shirking of responsibility most men typically display for their own health care. The other three gentlemen exonerated men either directly or indirectly for their lack of proactivity and blamed the "health system" for being opaque and not men friendly.

Without saying it in so many words, three of the four experts felt that recognizing and preventing men's health problems is not just a man's issue. Because of its wider impact: its impact on wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters, men's health is truly a family issue. Or better still, society's issue.

Reports from government inquiries over the years – both in Australia and the United States - indicate that men's contributions to the demise of their own health problems include the following, in no particular order:

• tobacco smoking
• physical inactivity
• poor diet
• alcohol misuse

   

• psychological disturbances and

   

• psychiatric issues including depression, bipolar and suicides.

Many men are hospitalized or die men die from:

• diseases of the Heart
•  cancers (including prostate, testicular and skin)
•  cerebrovascular Diseases (stroke)
•  chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases
•  unintentional Injuries/ Accidents including Diabetes Mellitus and
•  kidney ailments

When it comes to their health, most men know very little. But they do have a choice.

They can take charge of their bodies and their minds, or they can sit back and hope for the best.
If they want to take a back seat, they need do little more than wait until more and more artery clogging statistics are expelled by different levels of Australian governments or by of similar socio-economic jurisdictions in North America.

Maybe awful statistic will prod men to action. Then again, maybe not.

If men really have time on their hands, they can wolf down more and more burgers and pizzas, wash those meals down with a cleansing ale or three, stay physically inactive glued to Radio 2 GB's continuous call team and whistle Dixie several times, until one day community based non profit organisations are finally established whose missions are to reach men and their families where they live, work, play, and pray with health prevention messages and tools, screening programs, educational materials, advocacy opportunities, and patient steering. These organisations will help men make sense of the medical world at every one of life's many milestones: birth, puberty, manhood, child rearing, divorce, retirement, bereavement and death.

Using the United States data as a proxy for Australia, a detailed health investigation undertaken by Maggie Jones comparing men versus women's health in the New York Times in March 2003

revealed the following depressing statistics:

• American men typically die almost six years before women do.

• The male fetus is at greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.

• Male births slightly outnumber female births (about 105 to 100), but boys have a higher death rate if born premature: 22 percent compared with 15 percent for girls.

• Overall more newborn males die than females (5 to 4).

• Sudden infant death syndrome is one and a half times as common in boys as in girls. Boys are three to four times as likely to be autistic.

• Boys are three times as likely to have Tourette's syndrome.

• Mental retardation afflicts one and a half times as many boys as girls.

• Dyslexia is diagnosed two to three times as often in boys as girls.

• As teenagers, boys die at twice the rate of girls.

• Boys ages 15-19 are five times as likely to die in a homicide.

• Boys ages 15-19 are almost 11 times as likely to die by drowning.

• Boys ages 16-19 are nearly twice as likely to die from a car accident.

• Men are 16 times as likely as women to be colorblind.

• Men suffer hearing loss at twice the rate of women.

• The male hormone testosterone is linked to elevations of LDL, the bad cholesterol, as well as declines in HDL, the good cholesterol.

• Men have fewer infection-fighting T- cells and are thought to have weaker immune systems than women.

• Men have a higher death rate from pneumonia and influenza than women.

• Stroke, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and accidents --all among the top causes of death --kill men at a higher rate than women. Men ages 55-64 are twice as likely as women to die in car accidents

• Men ages 55-74 are twice as likely as women to die of heart disease.

• Among people 65 and older, men account for 84 percent of suicides.

Pretty depressing stuff if you're a guy. Compared to women, right from the womb we start off on the back foot and the final nail in the coffin is that we are buried 5-6 years before our wives!

Sure the US is not a perfect comparison for Australia, but if even half of the listed statistics are true for Australia, then we urgently need to promote health awareness in Australian men. And make available such information where men congregate: in workplaces; gyms; pubs and clubs

Until the day when health awareness becomes as ubiquitous a conversation topic as say playing the pokies at a club is, or "chilling' out" at an upmarket bar, men could at least exhibit some proactivity with respect to their health.

A great place to start is for men to get to know their bodies and minds. What's "normal" and what isn't at every stage in life. What's the difference between being sad and being depressed. This can be done very economically, and given men are shy about discussing their health issues, this can be undertaken in the privacy of one's own home. All it takes is reading an excellent guide called the Real Man's Toolbox by Tammy Farrell, R.N. .

Raising awareness about men's health is the whole point of her book.

This Australian book is for men and looks at the most common causes of chronic illness and premature death in men, including heart disease, prostate cancer, diabetes and depression. The aim of the book is to educate men so they can make informed decisions about their health and take a more active role in maintaining their own health and well being, well into old age.

The author, a registered nurse sums up the ignorance men have of their bodies: "why do men take their car to the mechanic as soon as there's even a little rattle, but they run in the other direction from a doctor when they need to look under their [very] own hood?'

The Real Man's Tool Box was written for the knockabout lad who is too busy enjoying footy, the odd cleansing ale, motor cars and the occasional live band, to give a toss about his health. Farrell tries to span the chasm between those very few men who seek medical guidance from friends that are medically qualified and those countless men who are lackadaisical about their own bodies.

Topics covered include: the healthy heart; the prostate; the bowel; sleep; mental health; diabetes; gout; men's sheds (recently created organisations dedicated to help men deal with isolation, loneliness and depression); diabetes; gout; sun damage; sex and sexual dysfunction; sexual organs (and cancers).

For men who are modern in their thinking and cognisant of health care matters, this easy to ready reference - on physical as well as mental health - is a wonderful addition to the coffee table. It's way, way too important to shelve unceremoniously on a bookshelf.

And for those men whose visit to the family doctor is so rare it almost warrants an anniversary to celebrate it, this book is more than vital.

If could vastly improve their quality of life. Vastly.

The Real Man's Tool Box: A DIY Health Manual for Men by Tammy Farrell is published by Hatchette Australia 2009 $29.99