This year I grew a mustache for #movember’s campaign on men’s health awareness. I haven’t been much on social media (or have I? LOL) so not many people have seen my mustache, thus I haven’t created much awareness. Therefore, here’s my contribution to this great campaign.
If you don’t know about Movember, you can learn more about it here, but if you’re here for a quick read, straight out from their website, Movember is “THE LEADING CHARITY CHANGING THE FACE OF MEN’S HEALTH ON A GLOBAL SCALE, FOCUSING ON MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE PREVENTION, PROSTATE CANCER AND TESTICULAR CANCER.”
There are a number of things that I am passionate about, and health is obviously one of them. I think it is well known, at least, stereotypically, that [most] men don’t take [enough] care of themselves. There are tons of memes about it if you do a quick search, you’ll find funny videos of men messing around in the work field and almost killing themselves only to be saved by luck, I guess!.
In the few years that I have practiced medicine, I can say that the ratio of patients that I’ve seen in the consulting room is 9:1, women and children representing 90% of consultations. Let’s call it out, men don’t like going to the doctor. We’ll tough it out and only go to the doctor when we are feeling pretty bad and more often than not, only after being pressured by others. I guess it’s also the ‘first responder’ badge that we all attempt to carry with honor and we think we don’t have time to get sick because we are very busy taking care of others around us.
When you are training to become a first responder, the first thing they teach you is to first and foremost assess the location and ensure that it is safe for you to perform rescues and procedures. If you’re in danger and you get hurt, you’re one more person that needs rescue, and thus your intentions and efforts to help have been futile. The same thing they tell you when you’re inside an airplane about to take off. In case of cabin pressure loss, FIRST, get a mask on YOUR face before trying to help someone else. I think it is clear as water, and we all already know that we can’t help anyone else if we are the ones that need help.
I don’t want to scold you into going to see a doctor, but I want to encourage you to take responsibility for your own health even if this means asking other pals for help. Here I would also like to tackle the topic of vulnerability. This is something I am still practicing and I know man, it’s not easy. But it’s okay gentlemen, we can relax and open up.
We are in the middle of a global pandemic, mental health has been under a tsunami. While governments are directing most of their attention towards fighting a virus, that indeed represents a potentially fatal threat to many people, there’s another pandemic going on under the wave that is taking many more lives. Depression and suicide are at an all-time high. I am glad to know that these things are talked about more often now than they used to in the past. However, this is a matter that demands continual conversation.
Besides showing off my nice mustache, (yeah, I am hecka proud of it), I want to leave you with some encouragement or perhaps more of a reminder of things you can do to improve your health.
During my childhood and adolescence I was for the most part ranging between overweight and obesity. This impacted my self esteem and my confidence as a man. During clinical years of college when I didn’t get consistent sleep and my eating habits were horrible I remained for the most part overweight, if you see my older photos you’ll notice I had some pretty good size cheeks. In hospitals, (ironically), there were nice and shiny vending machines that during a night shift were available and ready to feed your hungry, sleepy soul. Well, this translated into small increments in my blood pressure, and with blood pressure, believe me, you don’t want upgrades. You better keep the basic service.
For the last three years, I’ve been on a journey toward health. With the encouragement of good friends and their invitation to the gym, I began working out and consequently losing weight while getting stronger. You might have seen that for a whole year I was all about the keto diet. I’m not on it anymore but It did help me. I’ve been eating and exercising better. Setting limits for screen time, aiming at keeping a consistent sleep pattern. I began to incorporate yoga into my routine. I quit my night shift job and recently I moved down to my family’s ranch where I’ve been able to be even more intentional about these things.
These are some of the things that I’ve done. But let me ask you, what do YOU need to do to improve your health?. I am sure you know. You’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but you’re not sure if you can commit to it. You’re not sure if you can afford to cut some hours from work to dedicate to your body. You’re not sure if you can live without your daily coke. Believe me, you can live without it, and you can die sooner with it.
You can start exercising, you can quit smoking, you can cut back on alcohol, you can see a therapist, you can look dumb in the gym, you can quit porn, you can improve your sex life with your wife, you can get that weird mole seen by the dermatologist, you can quit that night time job, you can improve your relationship with your kids, you can go hiking, exploring nature, start a new hobby, you can dream again, you can ask for help. We all need help. We ALL do.
So what are YOU going to do?