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There is an ongoing,
increasing and predominantly silent crisis in the health and
well-being of American men. Due to a lack of awareness, poor
health education, and culturally induced behavior patterns
in their work and personal lives, men's health and well-being
are deteriorating steadily. The men's health crisis is seen
most dramatically in mortality figures. In 1920, the life
expectancy of males and females was roughly the same. Since
that time and, increasingly, in the 1970's and 1980's, the
life expectancy for men has dropped in comparison with that
of women. Men's life expectancy now is over 10% lower than
that of women. The average life expectancy (1991) for black
men is 65 years, that of black women is 73 years. The average
life expectancy for white men is 71 years, that of white women
is 78 years. Over the last thirty years, the ratio of male
mortality over female mortality has increased in every age
category.
Men's health is
obviously a concern for men but it is also a concern for women
-- concern for their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers.
Men's health is also a concern for employers who lose productive
employees as well as pay the costs of medical care and a concern
for government and society which absorb the enormous costs
of premature death and disability, including the costs of
caring for dependents left behind.
The relative lag
in men's health is due to a number of causes. One primary
cause is the cultural message that men should not react to
pain in their bodies or their souls. Thoreau observed more
than a century ago, that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet
desperation," yet many men continue to fear the risk of appearing
unmanly or merely mortal by changing their behavior or their
environment in life preserving ways. The consequence is that
men are at greater risk for several of the top killers of
Americans -- heart disease, cancer, suicide, accidents and
violence. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death
for men. One in every five men can expect to suffer a heart
attack before the age of 65. Between the ages of 25 and 75,
men's death rate from heart disease is two to three times
greater than that experienced by women in the same age group.
To read the rest
of this article from the Men's Health Network, please click
here - http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/new_goals.html
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