MENS HEALTH MONTH, SEE YOUR DOCTOR

 

Younger people ignore their health? That’s not a good trend during Mens Health Month.

Maybe they mistrust the medical industry? Big Pharma?

There’s some evidence millennials are the most into ‘self care.’

That’s nice, except when self care isn’t enough.

Older people ignoring their health is an even worse trend.

The mental part of illness added to aging creates a certain spiral, and it’s going down.

If you’re a man, or know men, keep an eye on them.

Men are the biggest liars when it comes to their health.

If you live within the reach of BoomerPdx, in one of the eighteen nations, twenty six American states, or one hundred six cities world wide reached yesterday, pass this link along.

Why Men Put Off Doctor Visits from The American Heart Association.

With additional notes from a man in bold.

• “I don’t have a doctor.”

  Step one toward staying healthy is finding a doctor you trust.  But you’ll never know if you trust one unless you try. Check your insurance company or local listings for doctors in your area. Call their offices and ask questions, or check around online. It’s also a good idea to check with friends and family for recommended doctors.

Solid Mens Health Month advice except for the trust part.

How much trust should you invest in a doctor?

If you trust them with your life and they tell you it’s ending, you might grow to hate every doctor and be justified.

You can’t project feelings on the unknown, though. That’s just sick.

How to find the best doctor for you? Talk to the healthiest person you know, and the most unhealthy.

Somewhere between the two you’ll find your perfect match, the Primary Care Physician you’ve always heard about. And they’ll look like George Clooney.

• “I don’t have insurance”.

  Everybody should have insurance under the Affordable Care Act. If you still don’t, here’s all the information you need to get signed up in our Consumer Health Care section.

Are you keeping up with the projected changes in health insurance?

Whether or not you’ve got insurance is of no concern to traumatic illness, and they’re all traumatic.

If you get hammered with a bad diagnosis everything stops. Time changes, feelings change, and if you don’t get with the program, you’ll change from living to the other thing.

Celebrate Mens Health Month with the death defying feat of a doctor appointment.

• “There’s probably nothing wrong.”

  You may be right but … you’re not a doctor.  That’s why you need one, to be sure. Some serious diseases don’t have symptoms. High blood pressure is one, and it can cause heart attack and stroke. (That’s why they call it “the silent killer.”)  High cholesterol is another often symptomless condition. Ditto diabetes. Finding a health problem early can make a huge difference in the quality and length of your life.

Read that last sentence one more time: Finding a health problem early can make a huge difference in the quality and length of your life.

Like many men you probably say you hate your life, except for the part you love. That’s what makes the hate part tolerable.

Listen carefully. If you’re one of the hardcore guys who says they hate their life, you’re probably talking about your job.

Well, when your health takes a dive you’ll have more to hate and less to love. That’s just how it works.

Think about it. Adding driving pain, nausea, and what feels like starvation to your day makes no one happy and turns you into someone you don’t know.

• “I don’t have time.”

  There are about 8,766 hours in a year, and you want to save … two? When those two hours could save your life if you really DO need a doctor? If you want to spend more time with your family, these two hours aren’t the ones to lose. Try some of these tips to find time for the whole family to get moving.

Let’s get this straight: From the time you’re born the clock starts ticking.

You can see the clock in the faces of young and old.

The youth are blissfully unaware of the clock, which is why they ignore their health and seem just fine.

Older people have the look. Call if fear, but there’s more.

They look at their blissfully unaware selves in pictures and see where things changed.

The trick is getting to blissfully AWARE and pulling along as many as you can.

It might take more than two hours, but make time.

• “I don’t want to spend the money.”

  It makes more sense to spend a little and save a lot than to save a little and spend a lot. If you think spending time with a doctor is expensive, try spending time in a hospital.

Unless you’re a tapped out drunk who spends everything on your ‘medicine’, or another sort of full blown addict, you’ve got a few bucks.

Consider this analogy: I save money on my car by skipping oil changes. Now I need a new engine and I’m taking the bus.

Screw around with your health and your new ride will be a wheelchair.

Complain about money on the front end and you’ll go crazy later.

With an in-network deductible, an out of pocket deductible, and out of network discounts on testing and procedures, you’ll rack up more bills than raft of ducks.

Now ask yourself what is more expensive, a doctor visit or a disease?

• “Doctors don’t DO anything.”

  When you see a barber, you get a haircut. When you see the dentist, your teeth get cleaned. But when you get a checkup, the doctor just gives you tests. It may seem like you don’t get anything, but you do. You get news and knowledge that can bring better health, if you act on it.

In the old days you might get a haircut and a tooth pulled by the same practitioner. With a shoe shine thrown in for good patients.

Heads up, men, this isn’t the old days. It’s Mens Health Month, 2017.

Now a doctor sits in front of a screen reading results and writing prescriptions.

They don’t do much because you expect too much. Your PCP is the gatekeeper. If you have a health problem you’ll get referred out.

Now shine your own damn shoes until you can see yourself in the toe.

Then wear the same shoes to your check-up for good luck.

• “I don’t want to hear what I might be told.”

  Maybe you smoke, drink too much, have put on weight. Even so, your doctor’s there to help you. You can deny your reality, but you can’t deny the consequences. So be smart: Listen to someone who’ll tell you truths you need to hear. Be coachable.

Being coachable is a trust issue with the doctor.

If you’re not coachable you won’t get the best results from your PCP. Why should they waste their time on a hard case like you?

Hearing what you’re told from a doctor is a 50/50 deal. Good news or bad news.

The good news is you saw your guy. Score for you.

And there’s really no bad news. Even if it’s something you don’t want to hear, you’ve got knowledge.

What you do with your new knowledge tells how coachable you are.

Be a team player, not a team bitch.

• “I’ve got probe-a-phobia.”

  You don’t need a prostate cancer exam until you’re 50. Even then, remember that your chances of survival are much better if it’s caught early. So it’s worth the exam. But it’s only one small portion of a physical. Don’t let one test stop you from getting all the benefits of an annual physical.

Let’s return to the top entry about finding the right doctor.

You’ve seen the diploma’s, talked to friends and family, and your new doctor seems like the right fit.

Check their hands if you’re probe-a-phobic.

Giant hands? Small hands? Compared to colonoscope?

Remember the part about team player and get off the bench.

• “I’d rather tough it out.”

  If pro athletes can play hurt and sacrifice themselves for the team, you ought to be able to suck it up, right? Wrong! The Game of Life is about staying healthy for a long time – a lifetime.

Go ahead and tough out a cold, the flu, a headache.

Mens Health Month isn’t about who’s tough or not.

Tough sports guys don’t have a bleeding ulcer, bulging aorta, or cancer.

Twisted knees, sprained ankles, and concussions are their common problems.

Instead of high blood pressure induced kidney failure, congenital atrial fibrillation, or early onset Parkinson’s, athletes tough it out on a much smaller scale.

Yes, you’re a tough guy, but unless you’ve been tough enough to know your breaking point, you’re probably not as tough as you’d hope.

No one needs to be that tough. It’s 2017 Mens Health Month. Be tough enough to see a doctor.

Be a good example even if you think no one cares. Die from neglect and you won’t be around to see who did care.

• “My significant other has been nagging me to get a checkup.”

  OK, so you don’t want to give in. But isn’t it POSSIBLE you could be wrong? Give in on this one. See the doctor.

Let’s just agree getting reminded to make an appointment with a doctor isn’t the same as being nagged to take out the garbage, pick up your socks, and floss your teeth.

If you aren’t healthy enough to see the doc, you’re not healthy enough to take a little nagging.

Long term marriages know where the buttons are and when to push them.

Your man dodges health concerns until they collapse in public and get scooped up in an ambulance?

They avoid your reminders?

Consider the words of a man with throat cancer sitting in a radiation therapy waiting room:

“This is a pretty serious deal. I even quit smoking this time.”

• A Final Word On Mens Health Month.

If you’re a regular guy and not a self-hyping health moron, listen to your wife, your girlfriend, your partner.

Listen to the people who spend more time looking at you, and listening to you, than you do.

Face it Bro, you’re just too close to the subject.

If you have someone you love, and they refuse to acknowledge their own health responsibility, send them this link. Or this one.

I’ll do the nagging for you.