Talking About Men's Health™

The summer of 2009 is almost over and looking back at the past two-and-a-half months, I realize that it’s been an extremely busy one. Health reform debates and symposia at various think tanks; briefings with health policy experts on the Hill; and editorials on the public option and “death panels” scatter websites and newspapers across the nation. Interspersed with health reform, I conducted health education outreach to an assortment of worksites and community health fairs. With so much attention on health care and health outreach, health seems like a top priority, right? Well, it depends. We can spend hours, days, weeks, months and years talking about being healthy and having health insurance, but that’s only the first step. Talking about health is easy. Scheduling and attending doctor’s appointments for routine check-ups and screenings takes effort. Showing up to those health education outreach that I conducted at worksites and community health fairs takes effort. Learning about and Becoming knowledgeable in a variety of health topics takes effort. So does eating well and exercising. It all takes effort and being healthy takes a lot of work…

I attended a church-sponsored health fair this weekend in Maryland and I was impressed with the event’s organization and layout. Unfortunately, it was not well-attended by parishioners. I interacted with less than 20 people; others even less. Health screenings and a variety of resources were available free of charge, but remained largely ignored. The picnic outside, however, was another story. Hundreds of parishioners were eating, dancing and singing outside, a mere hundred feet from the health fair.

Such is reality. It is much easier to stay in a routine or have fun than to actively seek and engage in preventive medicine. But I assure you, it is worth the effort and can be fun depending on what you seeking. There are numerous benefits of regular exercise and a healthy nutritious diet, especially as we age, that are fun and enjoyable; for example, risk factors for chronic disease decrease and quality of life improves. As the age-old adage states, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I truly believe that investing in the effort now will drastically improve your health and well-being years in the future.

I turn it over to you guys. We need your help. How can we convince people to put in that extra work to become healthier? What methods or new strategies can we try to reach the general public?

**On a side note, MHN is currently conducting an online awareness survey on fibromyalgia. We encourage and invite anyone with a few minutes to spare to click on the following link to participate:

http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/fmsurvey.php

We thank you in advance for your help!

For a majority of men, it is all about the numbers especially sports fans.  They can recite statistics of their favorite teams and players without hesitation:  Lebron James, the 2009 NBA regular season MVP averaged 28 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds last year; the Los Angeles Lakers won their 15^th NBA championship, 2 behind the Boston Celtics; Peyton Manning passed for over 4,000 yards winning his 3^rd MVP last year; Albert Pujols is batting .325 with a league-leading 34 home runs this year; Wayne Gretzky ended his career with 2,857 total points; Tony Stewart leads the Sprint Cup Series by 192 points; and Pele scored 77 goals in international games over his career.

But there are also important health numbers that most men never remember and these numbers may even describe their personality. Here are some numbers you should be aware of:

Normal Body Mass Index (BMI) range is 18.5 – 24.9 (calculate yours here – http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/)

Normal Blood Pressure is anything 120/80 mmHg and below (more information here – http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4473)

Total cholesterol should be below 200 mg/dl (more information here – http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=183)

Glucose levels should be below 100 mg/dl when fasting (more information here – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003482.htm)

Prostate Specific Antigen test results below 4.0 ng/mL is normal (more information, including PSA velocity here – http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/PSA)

So, how do your numbers compare? Are you living within healthy numbers?

Other stats to think about:

Men have a life expectancy of 5 or more years less than women, regardless of race.

Men have higher mortality rates in 9 of the top 10 causes of death.

The ratio of men to women is 85:100 by the age of 65.

1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in his lifetime.

Prevalence rates for HIV/AIDS in men outnumber women 3:1.

I always think that Mondays are the perfect day to start or learn something new. We’ve hit the reset button while out of the office over the weekend and Monday presents a chance to start fresh. Not only that, but researchers suggest that changes you make on a Monday are more likely to be repeated throughout the week. This blog post begins the first in a series of monthly Monday Fresh Start where I will explore positive and meaningful ways in which you can learn more about your nutrition and health and take small, active steps towards the best possible you!

One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome in your road to a more nutritious diet and healthier you is knowing which sources to believe and where to look for them. In this Monday Fresh Start, I will be highlighting some important information to know and sources to help you make your fresh start.

Which Food Pyramid should you use?

The Food Guide Pyramid most of us have heard about was created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and modified in 2005 to be more flexible for each individual. Additionally, there are multiple versions of this food pyramid that incorporate the needs of different cultures or food preferences. If you would like to learn about and use one of these pyramids, make sure to check out Healthy Living Nutrition Information for Men which gives handy tips on understanding portion sizes. It has very useful analogies!

As a Registered Dietician student, we are taught about this food pyramid and how to help individuals meet its daily requirements. My public health, cancer research, and nutrition experience leaves some doubts in my mind when I think about what seems “healthy” based on common sense, research, and what this pyramid recommends. I personally recommend taking a look at the Healthy Eating Pyramid which combines research from multiple disciplines and recommends a drastically modified food pyramid. I try to use this guide in my own life and have found that my mental attitude has become more positive and I feel healthier. It is wonderful to be encouraged to eat healthy, exercise, and feel healthy without having to worry about specific calories or amounts of food.

What is a Portion Size? A Serving Size?

I have always been confused by portion sizes and serving sizes. Recently, I have discovered why they are so different. The portion size (found on the Food Guide Pyramids) are created by the USDA and serving sizes (found on nutrition labels on food products) are created and monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No wonder they’re so different! So if you were wondering, like I was, why the portion sizes of the food pyramid don’t match the serving sizes on your food labels – it’s because they are regulated differently and by different government agencies.

Where can I find accurate and easy to understand nutrition information?

There are countless websites touting nutrition information relating to the products they sell. It’s important to seek nutrition information from independent sources that are not biased by the possibility of selling you a product. There are two main independent resources that I consult regularly:

Center for Science in the Public Interest has the largest circulation health newsletter, Nutrition Action Healthletter, that focuses on nutrition, health, food safety, and a variety of related topics. Each month’s newsletter focuses on a specific health topic and thoroughly uncovers the truth about nutrition and health research, what we have already learned, and which areas are still left to be further researched. The back page also includes Food Stars and Food Porn, which highlight the best and worst processed foods. Although it costs a small yearly fee to subscribe to the monthly newsletter, their website is a wonderful source for independent nutrition information and includes many helpful guides, PDFs, and the latest nutrition and health news. They even have an e-Book on Six Arguments for a Greener Diet for those of us who are environmentally conscious and want to incorporate that into our eating habits.

Nutrition Data is my ultimate source for nutrition information. They have many easy to use resources and extensive nutrition information. As I learn more about individual nutrients in different fresh foods, I check what I’m eating in this database. Check it out!

Future blogs will be more focused on specific nutrition and health topics, but as part of National Fruit & Vegetable Month I wanted to make sure all the men who read this blog post have a place to start.

I hope all your Mondays this month are full of fresh starts!

- The Nutrition Nerd

Feedback, Suggestions, Questions

Each month I will be exploring nutrition resources, specific foods, recipes, and how nutrition can easily and simply be incorporated into your way of thinking to improve you and your family’s health. If there is a specific nutrition topic that is important to you, please send suggestions for future Monday Fresh Start to nutritionnerdalerts@gmail.com

For more information between blog posts on this site, please direct your web browser to:

Nutrition Nerd Blog: http://nutritionnerdalerts.blogspot.com

Nutrition Nerd on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Nutrition-Nerd/100885132783?ref=ts

Nutrition Nerd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NutriNerd

Today’s Legendary Sources:

Food Guide Pyramid – http://www.mypyramid.gov/
Healthy Living Nutrition Information for Men – http://www.hap.org/healthy_living/mens/nutrition.php
Healthy Eating Pyramid – http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/
Center for Science in the Public Interest – http://www.cspinet.org/
Nutrition Data – http://www.nutritiondata.com/
National Fruit and Vegetable Month – http://www.ageducate.org/news/fruit-veg_month.html

Life expectancy rates have been declining in many areas of the United States. A recent posting in The Wall Street Journal (click here) looked at a report stating that even if the United States provided universal health care it still would not solve the declining rates of life expectancy. The biggest problem that needs more attention is preventing chronic disease. Preventative measures such as eating healthy and exercising can reduce the risk of developing dozens of chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, anxiety, high cholesterol, metabolic disease, certain cancers, and the list could go on. Generally people understand that a healthy lifestyle is important to maintain but the maintenance part is the trick. How do you convince someone who is extremely overweight or at risk of developing diabetes that changing their comfortable lifestyle is going to help save their life in the long run? It is a struggle to get people to see that the lifestyle choices they make today may not have an effect on them for another 2 to 10 years. The reality is that long term poor lifestyle habits are causing a decline in life expectancy. More effort should be put into slowing their progression down.

An article from Sci-Tech Today.com, Action is Louder than Weight, described how Americans do not really take the recommendation of exercise too seriously. This is a concern especially with the raising obesity rate in the US. The article states that most American’s know exercise is good for their health but they do not really understand the extent of how it reduces the risk of developing preventable diseases. If they know that exercise is beneficial to their health then why aren’t more of them participating? It could be that they do not understand how to fit in daily exercise?

Many people face extensive barriers to daily exercise. Family and job commitments often keep people too busy to squeeze in a run or a trip to the gym. They might also lack the ability to pull themselves away from the TV long enough to take a quick jog around the block. In some cases, there could be a lack of resources and knowledge on how benefit from proper exercise. By providing more than just a recommendation to exercise and actually demonstrating the act, more people might participate in daily physical activity. Instructions on how to create a supportive environment that is conducive to exercise is important to get people motivated to move.

Chose the first 2 documents under “5 most recent docs” at:

www.menshealthlibrary.org
 
Sources are offered for further reading.
 
Enjoy the holidays!
From all at Men’s Health Network