Small steps can turn into giant strides
There’s no doubt about it: men in general are bad at seekingmedical advice.
If ignorance is bliss, New Zealand males are certainly bathing in it, but the bad news is that for all the putting off we do when it comes to going to the doctor, the end result may well be an early end overall.
As we approach Men’sHealth Week on June 13-19, it’s jarring to note that men’s life expectancy is around five years lower than females – with many needlessly living with the longterm effects of poor health conditions.
Even worse is that across the country almost one-quarter of men will die before they reach retirement age.
Māori men fareway worse – last year it was close to half.
Why is this happening? Really, men already know the answer to that one: a lot of us were brought up to feel like we can’t show weakness or that the best judge for what’s right for our bodies is us.
Underneath it all, we know it’s not right, but it’s hard to break the habit of a lifetime.
According to comedian and actor Oscar Kightly, treating men’s reluctance to seek medical advice like a habit means we can take steps to break it.
‘‘Every time I got sick, I would just go to the medical centre and get checked out.
‘‘For years I’d be paying more than a GP fee and also I wasn’t seeing the same person every time and building up a proper medical history.
‘‘So I enrolled with a GP and got advice like getting my blood tested.
‘‘Then seeing what they mean, like high cholesterol or high lipid counts ... that led to me takingmy diet more seriously.
‘‘I was able to cut out pies and sausage rolls, it may not sound like a lot but if you ignore something for years it might end up being something bigger.’’
Like any habits, a good start is to figure out what small steps can be taken to make the start of the journey easier.
Melanoma is Aoteroa’s third most common cancer, about 4000 Kiwis are diagnosed annually, but the ways in which men can prevent its spread are obvious.
Putting on a shirt or sunscreen is the first course of action.
But the next, more important, step is checking your own body, maybe even asking for a bit of help from a partner, for moles or lesions that may end up becoming cancerous.
The next step after that is to go and have anything suspicious checked out.
One step leads to another, before you know it youmay have just saved your own life.
Apply that logic to all forms of health and those shocking statistics mentioned earlier will start to subside.
The most important thing men can recognise is that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness.
If anything, prolonging your health and wellbeing for the sake of whānau and friends is a sign of strength.