Entries for September 2008

Did John F. Kennedy, a man generally remembered as one of our more youthful and vigorous presidents, actually have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by exposure to gluten proteins found in wheat, barely, and rye? Quite possibly, says Peter Green, the director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. Though Kennedy managed to hide his symptoms from public view, he suffered from a slew of ailments that hint at celiac disease, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, migraines, and osteoporosis. Throughout Kennedy's life, doctors diagnosed him with ulcers, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and food allergies, but their treatments never seemed to help much. He never received the blood testing and intestinal biopsy that might have revealed celiac disease.

While Green's theory about Kennedy remains speculative, the disease often does go undiagnosed, and it seems to hit men particularly hard—especially where bone health is concerned. One of Green's articles, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, shows that celiac disease appears to progress faster in men, deprive men's bodies of more needed nutrients, and cause particularly acute damage to bones. In fact, says Alessio Fasano, the medical director at the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research, celiac disease is one of the leading causes of male osteoporosis, a condition that many men don't realize they can get. (History buffs may enjoy the History News Network's overview of Green's theory about JFK, and the Atlantic has a thorough description of that president's medical ordeals.)

Earlier this week, I blogged about a conference on how abortions impact men emotionally. I pointed out that there's a dearth of dispassionate research exploring whether the controversial procedure affects men's mental health. That's very much the case, but I'd like to follow up with perspective, as well as some data, from one of the few academic researchers who has tackled the issue: Arthur Shostak, an emeritus professor of sociology at Drexel University. We weren't able to connect before that post.

Since the early 1980s, Shostak has been periodically surveying and interviewing what he calls "waiting-room men"—the 600,000 or so guys who sit and wait each year as their partners undergo an abortion, and who help them return home afterward. Though firmly pro-choice, Shostak says he considers every abortion "a tragedy" and cites reducing the need as one of the reasons he studies how the procedure affects men. Thirty years ago, he went through an abortion with his partner; since then, he has surveyed upward of 3,000 waiting-room men about their experiences.

In August, the American Psychological Association released a major report that shows a single elective abortion does not increase a woman's risk of developing mental-health problems. (See our coverage of it here.) Not a page of the 91-page document addresses whether abortion affects the mental health of men. The imbalance is hardly unusual: Research looking at how abortion affects the male member of a pregnant couple is scarce.

This week, however, two organizations are speaking up about men and abortion, and their intent seems to be to frame the discussion in a strongly antiabortion context. The Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office for Evangelization—both staunch opponents of abortion—are wrapping up a national conference today that focused on the reported mental-health effects of abortion on men.

September's issue of the American Journal of Men's Health features an editorial about the sexual abuse of men, a surprisingly common but rarely acknowledged problem. I discussed the issue with Demetrius Porche, the editor of the journal and author of the editorial. Porche, a men's health advocate, registered nurse, and dean of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, has studied the problem for nearly a decade.

The sexual abuse of men isn't something that people are used to hearing about. Where and how does sexual abuse against men tend to happen?
Male sexual abuse happens in all kinds of settings to all kinds of men. We see it in prisons; we see it in boys' homes. Sexual assault is often part of violent crime. I've heard of burglars using sexual assault as a way of silencing and intimidating victims. Sometimes it happens within a family. Many males report inappropriate touching that escalates, in some cases, to sex. Another example is young boys "exploring" with each other. There's a fine line between exploring and getting coerced by another person who really knows what they're doing.