Yes Men, You've Got Some Good Health Stuff Going On, Too!

We were sitting around after the Rotary Golf Tournament on Friday last week, talking about our good shots and our not so good shots. I found myself looking around at the table of men and noticed how “grey” they all were. You know me; I had to bring that topic up to the table in order to rub it in. It was quite the scene, all these men who I’ve known for 12 to 13 years and every single one of them is now grey.

Following the “father’s day” article that I wrote last week, mostly encouraging the men in our lives to take care of themselves because we want them to live longer and healthier, I found myself in a couple of conversations with women and it was interesting to hear a more female side of men and aging. Yup, just like the research, we have our own opinions on that old aging issue!

So this week, I’m going to continue the topic of men’s health and point out some of the benefits of being a man that have been pointed out to me through some serious local research among some of my closet female friends and members. There’s also an article on today’s MSN Homepage called “Men: The Stronger Sex?” that also points out some male advantage health issues.

Going back to the “grey” issue, it seems to be fairly unanimous that men tend to age and grey better than women. Well, that’s what we think and we understand that this is a vanity issue that is completely brought on by societal influences. Graying for a man seems to correlate with “accomplishment” and “success.” Even though women can also receive this kind of recognition with grey hair, it seems to be more readily accepted that men grey better than women do.

Another huge benefit that men have over women is muscle mass. Yes, men have more muscle mass than women which gives them a distinct advantage to keeping their body weight under control easier. We all know that when a female and male both try to lose weight, under the same direction of diet and exercise, the man will lose the weight faster than the female. That has everything to do with muscle mass and the metabolism that comes with a higher percentage of muscle mass. It doesn’t matter about the size of the man either; they just have that physical advantage over women. This really irritates us girls too!

A study conducted in 2005 found that men tend to suffer from arthritis far less than women. Why arthritis and its related conditions are tougher on women than men is unclear. Researchers are considering the roles of genetics, testosterone and exercise to explain the differences. Women tend to seek medical help to learn more about their conditions, where men tend to seek help to relieve their symptoms.

Women tend to experience migraine headaches far more frequently than men. Research shows that before puberty migraines are nearly equal between males and females. Once puberty arrives, migraines affect girls three times the rate of boys.

Early in life and again late in life, boys tend to suffer from asthma more than girls. However in midlife, asthma is more severe and more common among women. Since 2004, pulmonologists believe that there is an estrogen impact on the respiratory system.

For every ten females suffering from an eating disorder, there is only one male coping with a condition like anorexia or bulimia. Men tend to want to build muscle mass instead of lose weight to improve their physique.

Depression appears to be twice as common among women as men, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Genetics, biology and social factors may all contribute to the disparity and several theories revolve around the emotional rollercoaster that hormones have on women. Men are spared from the estrogen-controlled conditions.

It seems that women seem to suffer more from the conditions that contribute greatly to suffering (i.e. arthritis, headaches, vision) but little to mortality. Men are more affected by mortality related illnesses. And as stated at the table last Friday, having a teenage driver makes all men grey. Sure enough, they were all fathers of teenage drivers. I wonder if that’s a scientifically proven fact?

 

Deborah Holmes

June 17, 2008