Men's Health: What men of all ages should know about their health?

Men's Health: What men of all ages should know about their health?

It is Men's Health Week and with Father's Day coming up. What a

 a better way to show Dad how much you care than by trying to make sure that he is taking care of his own health.

What’s about men’s health?

The biggest men's health issue, men should be aware of, they just don't go to the doctor enough or they go too late. The biggest focus from Men's Health Month is to get men to actually do preventive care.

In the future one thing men need to know, they should focus on prostate cancer however most men realize that heart attack, stroke, diabetes, hypertension is much more prevalent in the population than prostate cancer. 

What physical tests should every man have yearly?

Doctors stress at the importance, to men that it is important to do preventive care. All men on an annual basis should have their cholesterol checked. They should have their blood pressure checked, they should have a prostate exam, they should have a PSA or prostate-specific antigen if not every year, every two to three years to help establish a baseline for evaluation of possibly clinically significant prostate cancer.

Women do a much better job of annual or every other year monitoring for things such as cervical cancer or breast cancer and so on and we are trying to get men to know that it is important to do not only for treatment when something's wrong but also for preventive care.

What should be preventive care in the 20s and 30s of your age?

I think that 20s and 30s are always really important because that's when you started thinking about your heart health and your brain health so that's you want to make sure you're getting your kind of basic screenings at that time so that's your blood pressure every 2 years, your cholesterol every 5 years and then of course diabetes as well.

•  Sexually transmitted infections (STD)

Sexually transmitted infections are obviously a big risk factor right now at this time frame too. So that's another important thing that you have to talk about with your primary care doctor. But it is harder to realize men about preventive care in their 20s and 30s because they probably think they're pretty healthy unbeatable but there is a lot of research to show that all of let's talk about men's health in their The 20s and 30s. There were more than two million reported cases of STD in 2016. According to the survey the vast majority occurred in teenagers and young adults, there also were significant increases in cases among middle-aged and older adults.

•  Erectile dysfunction

One of the things about men's health that would take someone to the physician would be an Erectile dysfunction. Something's not working properly so they seek medical attention. The key for men to know especially younger men who have erectile dysfunction, it's often associated with other medical conditions such as heart disease such as diabetes such as blood pressure problems and so on. So erectile dysfunction in men which would take them to the doctor seeking medications may not just be erectile dysfunction, it may be a signal for something else.

What should  be preventive care in the 40s and 50s of your age?

• Prostate cancer, Colon cancer

In the 40s and 50s, at this point, you're starting to become aware that you are aging a little bit. There should be prostate cancer screening at forty-five if you're a high-risk a person so that's a little bit different. There should be Prostate cancer screening and then the colon cancer screening and colonoscopies at those ages. The doctors say that now they are gonna start asking men to get those checks sooner. According to doctors, that's really an interesting thing especially with colon cancer, there are actually some groups now that are recommending 45 is the starting age. There's a lot of different types of tests whether you're doing the colonoscopy whether you're doing the stool sample tests. There are a few different ways that you can do it and the frequency varies by the type of testing the prostate cancer. So there's actually a lot of good data to say prostate cancer screening actually could stop especially at the age of 70. The same is with colon cancer screening as well. 

 One  thing though to remember is if you're African American or if you've had a family member who had prostate cancer early before the age of 65 that's going to be a good reason to get tested a little bit early.

·        Abdominal aortic aneurysm

There should be an ultrasound to look for an abdominal aortic aneurysm that's the enlargement of the big blood vessel in the belly that can be a risk factor especially for men who are smokers.

• Lung cancer

Lung cancer again if you have ever been a smoker, the only recommended screening test for lung cancer is low dose computed tomography(also called a low-dose CT scan) that you may need.

• Bone density test

Then bone density testing even starting at 70 years old for men as well. A bone density test can spot osteoporosis. This test helps to esses the density of your bones and your chance of breaking a bone.

What should be preventive care in the 60s and 70s?

In your 60s and 70s, there are some screenings that you have been, you no longer need to do them. I think it's so important for folks to really talk to their primary care providers about this. Sometimes the hope there to be actually more harm from screening than actually the benefit. There are some simple medical tests that can be done

*Blood pressure

*Weight examination

*Colorectal cancer screening (from 50years to75 years)

*Prostate cancer screening (from ages 55 to 69)

*Protecting your eyes

*Hearing tests

*Cholesterol screening

*Vaccinations

Well obviously, it's Men's health week but every week should be men's health week but it's a good reminder to use Father's Day as a reason to think about it. It might be that one time of year yeah sort of say hey Dad have you done your screenings, have you really took care of your health.