Average life expectancy for Canadian men is four to five years less than women and yet no biological reason for this difference exists.
Explanations, both numerous and complex, do not lie in biological per se, but in the psychological and cultural, and include: a lack of awareness and understanding of the health issues that men face, a unwillingness to openly discuss their health and how they are feeling, a reluctance to take action when they do not feel well and stigmas surrounding mental health.
Initiatives like Movember, where men grow moustaches during the month of November, and Canadian Men’s Health Week are starting to raise awareness of men’s health issues and address the need for a cultural shift. Meanwhile though, the statistics for men’s rates of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and suicide paint a picture of declining wellness in Canada.
Things are changing though. Thinking about health and wellness is starting to shift from reactive and treating disease with medication to a more proactive position of trying to prevent it from happening with diet and lifestyle.
Awareness campaigns are not enough though. Initiatives like, Dr. David May’s healthy men’s group are needed to help support men while they make meaningful changes in their lives.
The real work starts when men look at how they are living, how they think about their health and make changes that could potentially not only extend but also improve the quality of their lives.
“No man is an island,” wrote English poet John Donne and no truer a point can be made about working through changes of this nature. The advice seasoned runners give to those starting out is to find a jogging buddy, either canine or human, to help with a little extra motivation when it is needed. Bad habits die hard and sometimes the only way change can happen is with the help of others who are facing similar challenges.
Funds should be directed toward preventive medicine, easing the pressure of a national health system groaning under its own weight. Surely promotion and support for healthy lifestyles costs less than visits to the emergency room for preventable disease.
Imagine the money that could be saved from health care in Canada each year if more support was available for doctors to lead groups which could encourage men of all ages to improve their health.
