Health Department Notes

Men’s Health Week National Men’s Health Week is celebrated each year the week leading up to and including Father’s Day, which is June 10-16. During this week, individuals, families, communities, and others work to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems, promote healthy living, and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. Men’s health is not only a concern for men, but it is also a concern for women who care about the health of their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers. Additionally, men’s health is an issue for employers who lose productive employees and pay the costs of their medical care, as well as for society, which absorbs the enormous costs of premature death and disability. Why focus on men’s health? • Most importantly, men tend to visit the doctor less often than women and therefore fail to detect many diseases at an early stage. • When men neglect their health, it affects their families, the community and their employers. • The best chances of avoiding diseases that afflict men are prevention, self-examination and regular physician visits. • Regular screening can catch many diseases at an early stage, when treatment is most likely to be successful. The statistics tell the story: • Men die, on average, six years younger than women. • Men have higher fatality rates than women for the 10 leading causes of death. • Men are 40 percent more likely than women to die of colorectal cancer. • Men are 90 percent more likely than women to die of lung cancer. • Men are nearly twice as likely as women to die of heart disease. • Men are 50 percent more likely than women to die of cancer. • Men are more likely than women to die from diabetes and kidney disease. • Men are more than twice as likely as women to die from chronic liver disease. • More than 30 million men suffer from erectile dysfunction. • More than 80 percent of suicide deaths are men. Regular checkups and age-appropriate screenings can improve your health and reduce premature death and disability. Health screenings can be an an important tool in reversing these statistics and in stopping the steady decline of men’s health.