If Men Would Only . . .

“If a man’s car makes a strange noise, he’s under the hood in a snap . . .If we can get men to take care of their bodies the way they take care of their cars, they would live a lot longer”, say Jean Bonhomme for the Men’s Health Network. It’s true. Less than half the men aged 45 to 64 have had a physical exam during the past year.

Here’s a summary of the sort of preventive maintenance that men should undertake for their health’s sake:

Monthly: weight (BMI calculation), waist measurement

Every year: fecal occult blood test for colon cancer,

PSA test, and/or digital rectal exam for prostate cancer

Every 2 years: blood pressure reading (should be under 120/80 mm Hg)

Every 3 years: fasting blood sugar (should be under 100 mg/dL)

Every 5 years: fasting blood lipids (cholesterol etc),

flexible sigmoidoscopy or barium enema or

Every 10 years: colonoscopy.

The BMI should be under 25, the waist measurement under 40 inches, and the total cholesterol less than 200, the LDL less than 100, the HDL more than 60, and the triglycerides under 150 mg/dL.

Of course, if someone is diagnosed with a problem (e.g. high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, colon polyps) this schedule should be replaced by that worked out with the family physician.

Maybe if men were to become a little braver about seeing their doctors, they might, in fact, improve on their average longevity, which today lags, quite considerably, behind that of women.