By Maria Jauhar, M.D.
June is Men’s Health Month, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994 to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. Men’s Health Month is anchored by National Men’s Health Week (June 13–19), which includes “Wear BLUE Day” on Friday, June 17.
Wear BLUE Day is a time to show your friend, brother, dad, boyfriend, spouse, or boss, that you care about them and their health by wearing blue. Why is this important? Because men live sicker and die younger. It is for this reason that Wear BLUE was created by Men’s Health Network to raise awareness about the importance of male health and to encourage men to live longer and healthier lives.
Men’s health awareness can mean many different things. It means raising awareness of making healthy lifestyle choices, making regular annual visits to the doctor, getting educated on heart disease or diabetes, starting general health conversations with their male friends, and much more.
Men’s Health Facts and Statistics
Here are some unsettling facts about men’s health:
- Men die at higher rates than women from the top 10 causes of death and are the victims of over 92% of workplace deaths. In 1920, women lived, on average, one year longer than men. Now, men, on average, die almost five years earlier than women.
- Women are 100% more likely to visit the doctor for annual examinations and preventive services than men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Depression in men is undiagnosed, contributing to the fact that men are 4 times as likely to commit suicide. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, boys are four times as likely as girls to commit suicide. Among 20- to 24-year-olds, males are six times as likely to commit suicide as females. Even worse, the suicide rate for men age 65 and above is six times greater than it is for women.
- The chance of being a homicide victim places African-American men at unusually high risk, with the odds for black males being 1 in 30, for white males being 1 in 179, for black females being 1 in 132, and for white females being 1 in 495.
- According to a New York Times article, 25% more newborn males die than females; 60% of SIDS victims are boys; men suffer hearing loss at two times the rate of women; testosterone is linked to elevations of LDL, the bad cholesterol, and declines in HDL, the good cholesterol; men have fewer infection-fighting T-cells and are thought to have weaker immune systems than women; and, by the age of 100, women outnumber men eight to one.
- More than 30 million men suffer from prostate conditions that impact their quality of life. Each year, more than 230,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 30,000 will die from it.
How to be Proactive About Your Health
If you haven’t had an annual physical in more than a year, then schedule an appointment with us by clicking this link. More than likely, your insurance plan fully covers the cost of your physical. Along with your physical exam, we can discuss other preventive medicine services with you, including healthy lifestyle management programs, medical weight loss programs, anti-aging programs, and more.
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