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No matter how much you know about men’s health, there’s always room to know more about ways to a better lifestyle, the top men’s health concerns, and the importance of getting medical care and regular screening tests. Many of the major health risks that men face can be prevented and treated if they are diagnosed early.
While the life-expectancy gap between men and women has shrunk to five years, the narrowest since 1946, it is no secret that men still need to pay more attention to their bodies. Why? Some reasons include:
-Men tend to smoke and drink more than women and generally have less healthy lifestyles.
-Men do not seek medical help as often as women.
-Men tend to join in fearless, risky, dangerous behaviors more than women.
-Men also largely define themselves by their work, which adds to stress and to being disconnected from their emotional side. This can add to problems in relationships, as well as in jobs and careers.
Women also play an important role in the health care of their men through education and awareness. Many surveys have been done to see where people get their health information. For women, it’s usually from their doctors, the television, the Internet, and printed materials. For men in these same surveys, wives, girlfriends, and/or mothers are the source of most of their health information.
The good news is that many of the major health risks that men face can be prevented and treated if they are diagnosed early. So you deserve to pay more attention to yourself! Take better care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Or if you are a woman searching for ways to help the men in your life, tell them the same.

Correction Appended:
What is it that some parents don’t understand about the HPV vaccine, licensed last summer in hopes of preventing most cases of genital warts and cervical cancer?
That infections with human papillomavirus, or HPV, are the most common sexually transmitted diseases?
That there is no treatment for HPV infections?
That cervical cancer is the most serious sexually transmitted disease caused by this virus?
That 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer arise because of two variants of the virus that the new vaccine protects against?
That 90 percent of genital warts cases are caused by two other variants of the virus that are countered by the vaccine?
That most people infected with HPV do not know it, yet can transmit the virus to an unsuspecting sexual partner?
That 20 percent of American girls 14 to 19 are infected, and the vaccine works only if administered before women contract the viral variants it is intended to prevent?
Despite these facts, the vaccine, sold by Merck as Gardasil, has been mired in controversy, and many parents remain wary about using it for the girls and young women it was meant to protect.

Are the Objections Valid?
One commonly voiced thought is that immunizing young girls against HPV will encourage promiscuity and that the message to these youngsters should be abstinence before marriage and monogamy after.
But the abstinence message is rarely effective. Half of all girls become sexually active before graduating from high school. For some girls and women, sexual behavior occurs against their will, through rape, incest and date rape.
Why would this vaccine give girls license to be sexually indulgent? It protects against only one sexually transmitted problem, and there are so many others, including chlamydia, trichomoniasis, H.I.V. and, of course, unwanted pregnancy.
Another concern involves long-term safety. How do we know this vaccine will not eventually cause other problems like autoimmune or neurological disorders or lose its protective powers or foster the dominance of other HPV variants?
Actually, we don’t. But we do have at least five years of safety data that include no hints of long-term risks or waning effectiveness. But if the vaccine should begin to lose potency over time, that could easily be remedied by a booster shot.
In response to suggestions of mandatory HPV vaccination for all girls entering high school, opponents have objected to “forcing” therapy on healthy girls under the presumption that future behavior might result in a disease.
This is exactly the principle on which every form of immunization is based. Not everyone contracted polio or smallpox before the advent of mandatory vaccines to protect every child. We vaccinate the masses, causing herd immunity, to protect the relatively few who would otherwise become ill and suffer devastating consequences.
Finally, objections have been raised about costs. This vaccine is not cheap. Each dose costs $120, or $360 for the three doses needed for full protection, far more than any other commonly used vaccine. If a booster shot is needed later, that could mean another $120. If the vaccine is made mandatory, states might have to pay for immunizing girls not covered by insurance.
Still, HPV infections are far more costly. As noted in the March issue of The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology: “The annual burden of cervical HPV-related disease ranges from $2.25 billion to $4.6 billion in the United States. The annual burden of cervical cancer ranges from $181.5 million to $363 million.”
This is not to mention the physical and emotional costs of cervical cancer to affected women, most of whom can no longer have children and some of whom die of the disease.

Forget beauty products with dodgy packaging and claims that are questionable. The ‘green’ cosmetic industry is growing up.
If George Clooney had parked his environmentally friendly hybrid car in my driveway I would have got excited. Up until now, that’s about as exciting as the combination of beauty and environment got for me.
Organic products certainly didn’t cut it. But all that is changing. Ian Forrester, founder of the Hawkwood organic food label in the UK and a speaker at the Natural and Organic Products Exhibition held in Johannesburg in October last year, stated that the worldwide organic food market will grow to an estimated US$32 billion by 2009.
This bodes well for natural and organic cosmetics because cosmetic trends closely mirror those of the food industry. And there’s every indication that South Africa will be in on the deal.
The’green’ cosmetic industry has fluctuated between sensationalism and seriousness; we’ve all seen shocking e-mails about lead in lipstick and parabens in deodorant. But how effective is this finger-wagging, head-shaking communication?
If cosmetic consciousness is to transform hippie to hip, the industry needs to speak to us in a language that’s as exciting and inviting as conventional ‘cosmetic speak’.
Most of us are happy to entertain the idea of going green, but we expect the convenience and performance we get from conventional cosmetics. That goes for packaging too: who wants to spend money on a good cosmetic and hide it in the cupboard because it looks so unappealing?
Now it seems we really can have it both ways. International beauty powerhouses are buying into organic, environmentally conscious companies with a view to expanding existing brands and including new ones to satisfy an ‘enlightened’ consumer (L’Oral has acquired The Body Shop and a stake in Sanoflore; Clarins has bought into Kibio, the French organic beauty company; Este Lauder owns Aveda).
I think George Clooney may just have pulled into my driveway…

What they’re working on:
Although the ill-effects of cosmetics on the environment have been well documented, we also need to be realistic.
For example, it’s all very well to go on about ‘evil’ preservatives in face cream, but we know that without them our lovely new face cream would transform itself into smelly, gooey, allergy-inducing, glow-in-the-dark scum in no time.
So the industry is looking at the type of preservatives used, rather than considering life without them.
Similarly, the flak that aerosols quite rightly took in the mid 1990s for the effect that propellants have on the ozone layer needs tobe put into perspective: the beauty industry has substantially reduced its output of CFCs, and aerosols aren’t the major cause of the ozone problem.
But let’s not gloss over those issues that still need to be resolved. For instance, it takes the average sudsy shower gel 300 years to disintegrate after you swoosh it down the drain to ‘Oh what a beautiful morning’.
Industry experts argue that ultimately everything is biodegradable, which is true, but it would be nice to know that it will disintegrate in our lifetime.
They’re working on it! And of course there’s the extraordinary amount of packaging involved – we may love it, but it is clearly not sustainable.
The industry is working on that too, increasingly making use of recycled paper and cardboard. So the good news is that things are happening.
The not-so-good news from the Natural and Organic Products Exhibition was that even though a product might pass as ‘organic’, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy or environmentally friendly. As in everything else, it’s a case of ‘let the buyer beware’.