Talking About Men's Health™

In light to President Obama’s speech today at AMA in Chicago, prevention seems to be the main thing I took away from listening to his speech. Of course, there were words directed to those doctors who haven’t been helping out to our frail health care by “tycoon-ing” the industry for profits, but preventive health are the key words to keep in mind. This Sunday when you are celebrating Father’s Day, you should give your Father a similar Presidential speech on his personal health and well being reform.

On crafting your speech to your Father, your main goal is to urge your father by helping them take care of their health. (If like to joke around, you could say you are “returning the flavor”). I did some research and found “Dads difference in child development:” in the MHN’s library. (http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/library/ddcd.pdf). I thought it would be great to use the first two bullet points and adjust them a little bit to help you in your speech and things to keep in mind for Father’s Day.

In order to tailor your health concerns to your fathers on Father’s Day,  you must be ADAPTIVE and have problem solving abilities.  Just as when you were an infant and “having a father around during the first eighteen to twenty-four months of life a more secure in exploring the world around them,” you must be around to support them through lifestyle changes or I like to call them, lifestyle adjustments. FOR EXAMPLE, on this Father’s day, let’s try eating sugar free items if your Father has diabetes. If he sees you doing it, maybe he will like it more. That leads me to EMPATHY. “The strongest predictor of a child’s empathic concern for others in adult life is a high level of paternal child care.” Social support has been known to help elderly men when dealing with health issues. By giving good care to your father, you will be able to lower his risk for depression and isolated feelings along with know that you love him.

Of course, he may not listen or comprehend your whole speech, but let’s just hope he can take away the same message I did with President Obama’s speech: prevention. If he can focus on including preventive measures to his everyday activities, he won’t have to worry about curative measures later on, especially in the hospitals. Let Father’s Day be reminder of how he helped you develop throughout the years. Empower yourself to return the favor to Father by helping him to survive longer than the U.S. average male mortality age of 75.2 (National Vital Statistics System 2005 Data, all races combined). With your support and guidance, your Father can change; just give them time to grow and foster their strives like they did for you-your entire life.