As with women’s health and overall health, there are lifestyle strategies that men can take that make-up an overall healthy lifestyle. Diet and nutrition, exercise and activity, and managing chronic diseases are important to men’s health. This blog will identify ways in which men’s health differs from women’s health, and how to combat chronic disease through sustainable healthy lifestyle choices.
What is different about men’s health?
Harvard Health states that men tend to fall sicker at a younger age and have more chronic illnesses than women. Of these chronic diseases, men tend to have more cardiovascular diseases, whereas women have more inflammatory related diseases. In addition, men have an increased risk for certain types of cancer, like colorectal cancer and prostate cancer, and should be regularly seeing a doctor and getting screening tests.
These differences in chronic disease between genders occur for a variety of reasons including biological factors, social factors, and behavioral factors. The genetic makeup of males and the number of chromosomes they contain can be linked to diseases that contribute to the excess male mortality throughout life. Metabolism also plays a role in biologic factors as well, and can contribute to metabolic disorders like diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and heart disease.
Social factors including work related stress and social networks can also play a part in men’s overall health. Work related stress can cause an increased risk for hypertension, heart attack, and stroke. While this doesn’t just occur in men, it is important to note that along with other genetic factors, it can contribute to a higher risk overall for chronic disease. Friends and support systems are helpful when it comes to stress and health, and women tend to have much larger and more reliable social networks than men. In general, women are in touch with their feelings and express their emotions more, which helps with communication and reduces stress.
Behavioral factors include smoking, alcohol abuse, and even thoughts on medical care. Smoking is the riskiest of all health habits and contributes to a variety of chronic diseases. Men tend to smoke at higher rates than women and continue to smoke past a certain age more often than women. Like smoking, alcohol abuse is seen at a higher rate in men than in women and can contribute to a lot of issues related to metabolic, kidney, and liver health. All of this combined with the fact that men less often seek out medical attention than women, cause a perfect storm of increased health risk for men. According to a survey by the Commonwealth Fund, three times as many men as women had not seen a doctor in the previous year; and more than half of all men had not had a physical exam or cholesterol test in the previous year.
However, though all of these various factors can increase health risks for men, there are ways in which to combat disease: by making lifestyle changes like improving diet and exercising regularly.
Nutrition for men
Diet and nutrition can sometimes be a hard change to make, but a good diet is at the base of good long term health. In a survey conducted in Massachusetts, women were about 50% more likely to meet the goal of eating at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables a day. Men, due to a higher metabolism than women, usually don’t have to monitor healthy food intake as closely. For men, the recommendations to maintain a healthy weight and consume nutrients needed to reduce risk for chronic disease are:
- Limit saturated fats – such as butter, palm and coconut oil, cheese, and red meat
- Limit sugar sweetened beverages – such as soda, juice, and processed beverages
- Consume at least 2 servings of fruit a day
- Consume at least 3 servings of vegetables a day
- Eat more lean protein sources – focus on meats that are at least 90% fat free, like turkey, chicken, pork, and lean beef
- Watch portion sizes – read nutrition facts labels and understand what a serving is
By incorporating these nutrition recommendations into daily life, quality of diet will increase and the risk for developing chronic metabolic diseases is reduced. However, this is not to say that eating foods and food groups outside of these recommendations will increase your risk for disease. Diet quality and reduced disease risk occurs when the diet as a whole is better. It is okay to indulge and wander outside of the “healthy” foods every so often, as long as your diet overall is healthy and provides the nutrients the body needs.
Exercising for men
Exercise recommendations do not differ between genders. The American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes a week of planned exercise. If you were to exercise three times a week, then that would be 50 minutes each session. In addition to this recommendation, it is recommended that two days a week should be resistance training like weighted or resistance band exercises. This is important to maintain muscle mass, which is helpful in reducing fat stores and with increasing metabolic rate. Ideally, exercise should be intentional, with unintentional exercise like walking through the grocery store as a bonus.
References:
- Crimmins EM, Shim H, Zhang YS, Kim JK. Differences between Men and Women in Mortality and the Health Dimensions of the Morbidity Process. Clin Chem. 2019;65(1):135-145. doi:10.1373/clinchem.2018.288332.
- Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Medical School. Mars Vs. Venus: The Gender Gap in Health. (2019) https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mars-vs-venus-the-gender-gap-in-health#:~:text=The%20health%20gap,likely%20to%20have%20aortic%20aneurysms. Accessed May 23, 2022.
- Center for Disease Control: Advancing men’s health and safety. (2016).
cdc.gov/men/. Accessed May 23, 2022.