Men’s leading causes of death are nothing new: heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, stroke, diabetes, respiratory disease and suicide.
The good news is that most of these conditions are preventable. To decrease your risks, you need to change the below habits that can endanger your health.
Don’t Be Single
Numerous surveys have shown that married men, especially men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, are healthier and have lower death rates than those who never married or who are divorced or widowed. Never-married men are three times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease, for example. After 50, divorced men’s health deteriorates rapidly compared to married men’s, found a RAND Center for the Study of Aging report.
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Why? The social nature of marriage may lower stress levels and depression, which lead to chronic illness. Also, unmarried men generally have poorer health habits, too, such as drinking more, eat poorly, going to the doctor less often less medical care and engaging in more risky behaviors, such as promiscuous sex.
Don’t Go Tech-Crazy
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The more time that’s spent looking at wide-screen TVs, smartphones, tablets, gaming systems, laptops, and other electronics, the less time that’s spent on more healthful pursuits, like moving your body, communing with nature, and interacting with human beings.
Social isolation raises the risk of depression and dementia, and a sedentary lifestyle has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and premature death. A 2012 Australian study of more than 220,000 adults ages 45 and up linked sitting for 11 or more hours a day with a 40 percent increased risk of death over the next three years.
But researchers say that getting up and moving even five minutes per hour is a “feasible goal . . . and offers many health benefits.”
Don’t Eat Poorly
In 2010, 35.5 percent of men were obese, up from 27.5 percent in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Poor nutrition is linked with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer — leading causes of death in men over 40. Younger midlife men often over-rely on red meat, junk food, and fast food to fuel a busy lifestyle, which leads to excess weight, high cholesterol, hypertension, and other risk factors. Older men living alone and alcoholics are vulnerable to malnutrition, because they tend not to prepare healthy food for themselves.
The American Dietetic Association recommends a reasonable 2,000 calories a day for men over 50 who are sedentary, up to 2,400 for those who are active. Most of those calories should come from lean proteins, whole grains and fruits and vegetables.
Don’t Be a Bad Driver
Men generally have more car accidents than women, and men in their 50s and 60s are twice as likely as women to die in car wrecks. Unintentional injuries (of all kinds) are the top cause of death among men ages 40 to 44, the third main cause in men ages 45 to 64, and cause #8 in men 65-plus. Among middle-aged men, fatalities are more likely to result from falling asleep at the wheel, exceeding the speed limit, getting into an accident at an intersection or on weekends after midnight. Men over age 45 have more accidents on snow and ice, too.
Don’t Neglect Your Mental Health
Although women are three times more likely to attempt suicide than men, men are more successful at it, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In 2009, 79 percent of all suicides were men.
More than 60 percent of all those who die by suicide have major depression. If you include alcoholics, that number rises to 75 percent. In older adults, social isolation is another factor – this is why older suicides are often widowers. Men often equate depression with “sadness” or other emotions — and fail to realize that common warning signs of depression include fatigue or excessive sleep, agitation and restlessness, trouble concentrating, irritability, and changes in appetite or sleep.
Depression is treatable at any age, and most cases are responsive to treatment, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Don’t Smoke
The older you get, the worse the effects of smoking become. Older smokers have sustained greater lung damage over time because they tend to have been smoking longer; they also tend to be heavier smokers.
Men over 65 who smoke are twice as likely to die of stroke. Smoking causes more than 90 percent of all cases of COPD — the fourth leading cause of death among men — and 80 to 90 percent of all lung cancer. The risks of all kinds of lung disease rise with age. Smokers develop Alzheimer’s disease, the sixth leading cause of death, far more than nonsmokers.
Older smokers are less likely than younger smokers to believe there’s a real health risk attached to cigarettes, says the American Lung Association, which means they’re less likely to try to quit. But regardless of the age you are when you quit, your risk of added heart damage is halved after one year. The risks of stroke, lung disease, and cancer also drop immediately.
Visit the BlackDoctor.org Mens Health center for more articles and tips.
