If you’re a parent in America, you ought to know a boy aged 10–19 is more than twice as likely to die than a girl of the same age. In fact, American men and boys are more likely to die at every age group. And whether it be cancer, heart disease, or indeed suicide, men lead in nine of the top ten causes of death in the U.S. Yes. Men’s Health is in crisis. They don’t just die more in every age group; American men have worse health outcomes across every socio-economic, ethnic and racial group too. Sadly the one sided, politically motivated and extraordinarily narrow narrative of ‘male privilege’ systematically excludes such nuanced thinking, or compassion. But these men and boys are not beyond saving. Men’s shorter lives needn’t be waved away with, “well that’s just the way it is!” Which other group would we ever dare say that for? Neither is this problem limited just to America – as men live shorter lives on average in every country on earth, in both developed and developing nations. It is a universal reality, and price, all men will eventually pay. World renowned Professor Randolph Nesse, founder of the field of evolutional medicine, perhaps put it best – ‘‘If you could make male mortality rates the same as female rates, you would do more good than curing cancer.’’ Think about that for a moment. Ask yourself how much funding and airtime is (rightly) given to cancer, and yet nothing given to men. There are no Offices for Men’s Health, yet four for women. There is no funding either. Yet countless tens of millions of dollars are poured into women’s health. Ask someone ‘who has it worse’ when it comes to health, and you’ll likely get the same trumped up half-baked answer of “women of course”, followed by some tall tale of historical male-centric medicine. But things have changed. It’s 2023. The pendulum has swung, and nobody seems to realise, or care. So what will we do about the crisis of male health? Will we save our men and boys? ~ Read the full article  Illustrations by Juan Bernabeu Images by Jair Lazaro, Taylor Lee, National Cancer Ins. + Lenart Lipvsek. #menshealth

2023-07-06