men's health day

Men's health has never been a perfunctory slogan of "stay up late less and nourish the kidneys more". It is a public health issue covering three dimensions of physical, psychological and social support, and has been generally underestimated by the public and even the medical system.

Not long ago, I was following a consultation in the men's department of a tertiary hospital. I met a 32-year-old Internet programmer. When he entered the consultation room, he was still holding a half cup of ice cream. He was squeezing his neck and said that he had "kidney deficiency" due to overtime work recently. He bought aphrodisiac tea online for a small amount of 3,000 yuan and drank it for three months, but it became worse and worse. The results showed that it was neither kidney deficiency nor fatigue, but ED caused by essential hypertension + long-term anxiety. I took antihypertensive medication and weekly psychological counseling. I came back for a follow-up visit within a month and said everything was much better.

Don’t think this is an exception. The data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023 is here: the detection rate of genitourinary diseases among men aged 18-44 has reached 21.7%, but less than 30% of them actively seek medical treatment. The rest are either blindly made up for or shouldered.

Interestingly, the academic community and the clinical frontline have been arguing for several years about the intervention path for men's health, but there is no unified conclusion. Public health scholars believe that universal screening must be implemented first, just like the two-cancer screening for women. Men over the age of 30 will receive free PSA (prostate-specific antigen) and testosterone level tests for their annual physical examination. Early detection and early intervention are always right. But Director Zhang from the andrology department I know doesn’t see it that way. He said that he recently received a 40-year-old patient with a urinary tract infection. He endured a fever of 39 degrees for three weeks before he came in. He thought it was “a shame for men to tell people about this disease.” In his opinion, it would be more effective to get rid of the stigma that “men lose face when they go to the men’s department.” It would be more effective than adding ten screening programs.

This kind of thing is so common, you can see it if you join a middle-aged man in a drinking party: someone advises him to drink less than two drinks, he pats his chest and says that he is strong and nothing will happen to him, then goes home and squats in the toilet for half an hour, unable to get up, and he is embarrassed to tell his wife that he has hemorrhoids.； When the work unit physical examination report is handed out, most people see the words "prostatic hyperplasia" and "high uric acid" and stuff it into their drawers. They don't even dare to search it on Baidu, for fear of finding some "incurable disease".

What is more easily overlooked are psychological issues. A survey conducted by the Chinese Mental Health Association last year showed that the recognition rate of depression in men is 32% lower than that in women. We are always taught that "men must stand upright" and "suffer by themselves". Many people have been suffering from insomnia for half a month, can't get excited about anything, and even don't want to watch their favorite football game. They also think that they are "under a lot of pressure recently, just get over it", and never think that they may be depressed. I have talked with many such patients. Most of them went to the psychiatry department for the first time because their wives forced them to go. The first words they said when they entered the consulting room were, "Doctor, I am not sick. I am just a little tired recently."

Nowadays, various "men's health regimens" are flying all over the Internet, but there is no accurate one. Some people say that doing 100 squats a day is better than taking any supplements. Teacher Li, who is engaged in sports rehabilitation, shook his head when he heard this. He said that last month, he received three people who practiced squats according to online videos and injured their meniscus. Ordinary people practice with wrong postures and injure their waists and knees. It is better to take ten minutes every day to go downstairs and take a walk. Some people say that soaking wolfberry and astragalus in a thermos cup is good for health. Doctors in the nutrition department also said that unless you are really found to be deficient in trace elements, taking supplements will increase the burden on your liver and kidneys. Smoking two cigarettes less, drinking two less drinks, and not staying up for three days in a row are more effective than taking supplements worth 10,000 yuan.

In fact, after all, today's Men's Health Day is not to make a list of health care that all men must do. If you have recently suffered from backache for almost a week, or you have not been able to sleep well for half a month, or have no interest in doing anything, don’t take it hard, take the time to go to the hospital to check in. There is really no shame in it. After all, it is a man's ability to be able to handle things. If you dare to admit that you can't handle it and need a rest, you are truly responsible for yourself, right?