Men and their health

​So this one’s for the guys today, the men out there that have a sneaking suspicion that they are getting older and that their body is not as resilient as it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago.  Shocker!  You are!  And it isn’t!
So why pick on the XY’s, rather than the XX’s.  Here’s why.

• Men are less likely to go to a doctor when they feel sick due to an inner perception that they are too busy.  Regardless of whether this is a true or false perception, men have a tendency to place a higher priority on “taking care of business” than they do on their own physical health despite the obvious contradiction of logic.
• Despite the jokes that are made (usually by women) about men being babies when they are sick, men generally are more “body blind”, meaning, they are less aware of their bodies when their bodies are trying to tell them that something is wrong.
• It is more socially acceptable, even expected, for men to “push through the pain” when their body is talking to them.
• Men are more likely to see illness as weakness and, therefore, unacceptable.
• Men are more likely to associate illness with getting older, and less competent which is also perceived as weakness (yes, we are not the most logical).  As before, we consider this unacceptable.

All of these patterns combine and are aggravated by the fact that men are at a generally higher risk than women for:

• Diabetes, due to their natural tendency to store fat in their bellies.
• High Cholesterol
• High Blood Pressure
• Heart disease
• Heart Failure
• Stroke
• Lung, colorectal and brain cancer
• Alcoholism (as a physiological disease, not a psychological dependence)

That said, although women are more likely to attempt suicide due to depression, men in the U.S. are 3.5 times more likely to actually die by suicide than women.  And then there are the male specific diseases like prostate cancer.
So why am I, as a coach, bringing all this up?  I am not a doctor, or a psychiatrist, psychologist or even a nurse.  In fact though, although coaching is not considered to be a health profession, it is definitely what is considered a helping profession.
Additionally, the motto of CRC Life Coach has always been “Making the world a better place, one life at a time”
As a coach, I am here to encourage, to support, and to help my clients to question their motives, and challenge their thoughts so that we can make better choices that take us to better, healthier, and happier places, one day at a time.
I encourage you and challenge you today, right now, my male counterparts, to start listening closer to your body, to hear what it is trying to tell you.  Stop paying attention to the toxic ideas society has taught us we need to be as men, question our own thoughts and do what it is right to live longer, healthier lives.  Not just for ourselves, but for our friends, our partners, our families.  And every day, make it better and better.

Russell