The month of June is Men’s Health Month. The purpose of Men’s Health Month is to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems, and encourage early detection and treatment of diseases among men and boys.
It is a month set aside to remind men that they need to take care of themselves, and be more vigilant in monitoring their health because they don’t do a very good job of that. The current life expectancy for Black men is only 69.8 years, compared to 75.7 years for white men, 76.5 years for Black women and 80.8 years for white women.
Black men are still carrying too much weight, eating the wrong foods, exercising only during the infrequent times when they’re stepping or doing the Cha-Cha slide, and regarding their prescription medicine as “optional.” But one thing we know is that if you are uninformed, you are at risk.
That means going and getting all of the tests: Type II diabetes, prostate cancer, stress tests for heart disease, blood pressure tests, keeping up on the cholesterol count to guard against heart attack and stroke, and exercising, even if it is just a daily brisk walk. It also means actually becoming acquainted with the food pyramid, and discovering that nachos and beer are not food groups.
If they are large parts of your diet, then you are aiming for that low end of the life expectancy chart. It means choosing foods that you can live with, not foods that don’t contribute to your health. If you aren’t taking your medicine, as prescribed, then you are cheating yourself and probably making sure that it will not work as it needs to.
Skipping a blood pressure pill because it tastes nasty is exactly what a child would say but not something a man should say. Most of the diseases that contribute to that life expectancy gap are preventable, or at least treatable. Yet too often Black men delay visits to the doctor, delay implementing the treatments and even delay taking the medicines.
That means that too often the first doctor to see a Black man complaining about a disease is an emergency room doctor. Black men have to take responsibility for their health, and their wives and sons and daughters can help them. That gentle reminder about exercise, or medicine or diet doesn’t always have to be so gentle, and bribery and even threats are allowed.
There is nothing more important than your health, and while we’re so busy being macho and acting like we’re so strong, we should not be health stupid. For this month, and all the months, Black men have to take care of their health.
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