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Gout Isn't Gone, Guys
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2008 Comment (13)Gout is a form of arthritis that produces intense bursts of joint pain and affects millions of people—overwhelmingly men. I've always had the impression that the curse was an entirely self-inflicted condition suffered by gluttonous royals of old, but since Gout Awareness Day happens to fall in May, I decided to look more closely at the condition. What I found surprised me. Since two thirds of Americans admit that they know very little about the disease, according to astudy conducted by the Gout and Uric Acid Education Society, it may surprise you, too.
A laundry list of European luminaries suffered from the affliction in the past, but gout is alive and well in today's middle class, and sometimes in people who are otherwise quite fit. HealthDay recently ran a story about Maurice Cheeks, former NBA star and coach, who has gout and hasn't been shy about it (take a look at this YouTube video of Cheeks coaching with one shoe because of gout). And I recently discovered that one of my coworkers is in a similar position; he's thin as can be but has been grappling with gout for the last three years.
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What Men Can Do About Dwindling Testosterone Levels
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2008 Comment (69)Is a man the sum of his testosterone levels? It's a question that's been on my mind over the last few days, since I stumbled across a fascinating hourlong episode all about the hormone on the NPR radio show This American Life. The segment features an eerie but enlightening tale of a man who stops producing testosterone due to a medical treatment and discovers that life without testosterone is essentially a life without desire. And not just sexual desire but desire for anything: be it food, conversation, and even TV. The man, oddly enough, describes it as somewhat "pleasant"; it sounds to me more like some strange sort of torture.
I'm not about to run off and get my testosterone levels tested like the producers of This American Life did for their show, but I will say hearing that episode makes me wonder where I fall on the testosterone spectrum. Testosterone levels start falling about 1 percent a year once men hit middle age, and it's a bit alarming to imagine something as central as my personality changing because of a dwindling hormone. Apparently when testosterone levels fall far enough, doctors even have a name for it—several names, in fact. Andropause, androgen deficiency, late-onset hypogonadism, and even "male menopause" are some of the labels bandied about.
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How to Prevent Prostate Cancer
Tweet Share on Facebook May 23, 2008 Comment (10)The medical literature is loaded with tantalizing hints that various drugs, supplements, and foods may either encourage or inhibit the development of prostate cancer. Just a few of the strategies that have been bandied about: reducing saturated fat intake, taking selenium or vitamin E, eating more soy, drinking green tea, or taking statins. But despite many studies of some of those substances, there's a fairly narrow slice of practical advice that men can count on.
That's because many of the studies that support such options have only observed men, rather than actually testing treatments, or have had other weaknesses in their methodology. For example, consider the evidence on lycopene, an antioxidant that's generated buzz over the years for its supposed prostate-cancer-fighting prowess. Numerous observational studies, such as this one, have trumpeted tomatoes, in particular, for containing the antioxidant, and the media have played right along, writing countless headlines about the benefits of tomatoes and tomato sauce. The trouble is, convenient as slurping down spaghetti sauce might be, the tomato-a-day approach, at this point, doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
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Erectile Dysfunction Often a Sign of Heart Disease, Diabetes
Tweet Share on Facebook May 19, 2008 Comment (88)Erectile dysfunction, once thought to have primarily psychological causes, is now recognized to often stem from physiological problems such as poor blood flow to the penis. Increasingly, research indicates that ED can be an early warning sign of coronary artery disease, which also results from obstructed blood flow and, if untreated, can lead to heart attacks and stroke. Recent studies—including two published online today—also link sagging erections to diabetes, which has negative effects on cardiovascular health. More than half of American men age 40 to 70 suffer from erectile dysfunction, so that's a lot of men who may be at risk of vascular disease—and may not realize it.
"Symptoms of erectile dysfunction seem to occur three to four years before symptoms of coronary artery disease," says Robert Kloner, a cardiologist at Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, Calif. Researchers first started tracking a link between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular problems in the mid-'90s, and in the last few years they have recognized that erectile dysfunction precedes and is therefore predictive of future cardiovascular problems.
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6 Myths About Commuting By Bicycle
Tweet Share on Facebook May 15, 2008 Comment (54)Tomorrow happens to be National Bike to Work Day, which made me curious about how many of us actually bike to work regularly. The numbers, according to the most recent census, are sobering: Only four tenths of 1 percent of Americans get to work on a bicycle. Seventy-seven percent, in contrast, drive—and by themselves. Could it be that surging gas prices might be prompting a change? Media reports suggest that the bike industry is on the verge of a boom, and there’s at least anecdotal evidence to suggest that Americans are itching to get back in the saddle.
In its blog, the Environmental Protection Agency wonders why people are or aren’t biking to work, and safety concerns, distance, and smelliness emerge from the comments as key barriers. I happen to be in that 0.4 percent, have been for the past six years or so, and imagine I will be until I retire or die. And, though I’m no spandex-clad enthusiast who shells out thousands of dollars for top-of-the-line racing bikes and gear, I’m convinced that such barriers are surmountable.
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A Few Places to Find Reliable Health Information
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2008 CommentThere aren't many publications and Web resources that offer men balanced, science-based, practical news and advice about how they can maintain and improve their health. The Harvard Men's Health Watch, Johns Hopkins's health update called "Spotlight on Men's Health," and the Medical University of South Carolina's men's health E-newsletters are a few that generally do. Here are a few kernels of useful advice drawn from their recent offerings.
A recently posted podcast about prostate cancer from the Medical University of South Carolina says that the condition, in many cases, can be safely left untreated. "One of the largest studies of its kind concludes that most older men with early prostate cancer do not shorten their survival odds if they adopt a 'wait-and-see' approach to the disease," according to the podcast. I came across similar data when I explored this wait-and-see, or "active surveillance," approach for an article last summer.
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'Bad Dads' Reality TV Show Stirs Controversy
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2008 Comment (38)Corrected on 6/6/08: An earlier version of this blog incorrectly spelled a Fox spokesman's name. The correct spelling is Scott Grogin.
This week, I received an intriguing E-mail from Glenn Sacks, a men's advocate and journalist, crying foul about the possibility that a reality show called Bad Dads might air on Fox. The show's producers and officials from the National Child Support Center plan to hunt down deadbeat dads and humiliate them into paying child support with the cameras running, according to an article first published in the Hollywood Reporter and then by Reuters, which calls the concept "ambush reality TV—but for a noble cause."
The show's premise peeves men's activists, who say it perpetuates the stereotype that men are irresponsible when it comes to child rearing. Ned Holstein, the executive director of the advocacy group Fathers & Families, says: "According to U.S. Census data, noncustodial mothers are 20 percent more likely to default on their child support obligations than noncustodial fathers. There is absolutely no reason to name the show Bad Dads when the average noncustodial father is more likely to pay his child support than the average noncustodial mother." Adds Sacks: "The worst part about Bad Dads is the way it publicly humiliates children of divorce by depicting their fathers as not loving or caring for them. These children did not volunteer to be humiliated on national television."
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