Men's Health PDF

Preface

Ten years ago, as we put together the first edition of Men's Health, we asked an important question: ‘Why do men die on average five years younger than women?' A decade later, although we now have at least a partial answer, namely that men look after themselves less well than women, the so-called gender gap still persists. The key issue then for readers of the third edition of this book is what can be done to narrow this gap, thereby allowing men to live longer and healthier lives. This is precisely the problem that we have asked each of our authors to address. Accordingly, the third edition of this book provides practical information that will help physicians to close the gap.

All three editions of Men's Health have been inspired by, and dedicated to, the memory of the father of two of the editors, namely Professor Ken Kirby FRS, who died prematurely from heart disease in 1967 aged 49. Unfortunately, middle-aged men continue to suffer sudden, and often fatal, cardiac events, even though our knowledge about the ways and means of reducing cardiovascular risk has increased in leaps and bounds. The problem lies mainly in the difficulty in persuading men to make the necessary modifications in their lifestyle that can dramatically reduce their cardiovascular risk. Their current attitude towards their health is ‘If it ain't broke don't fix it'. Somehow we have to effect a sea-change in their attitude to a more pro-active ‘If you look after it, it doesn't break' mentality. Unfortunately, if anything, the situation has deteriorated recently with an ever-increasing incidence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, both in the developed and under-developed world. Although the number of men who smoke has fallen in the United States and many European countries, sadly the smoking habit in men continues to rise in developing countries, with an inevitable increase in lung cancer deaths. Clearly there is still much to be done.

The third edition of Men's Health has been extensively revised and rewritten, with many new chapters. In particular, each of our authors has addressed the problem of the gender gap, especially in terms of cancer care and cardiovascular disease. The book is aimed not only at primary care practitioners, who need to encourage their male patients to visit them more often and to embrace preventative strategies for their health, but also at specialists, who too often focus too narrowly on their own areas of expertise, ignoring other potentially remedial problems, such as central obesity and unhealthy lifestyles, rather than tackling them pro-actively. We hope most sincerely that this new edition of our book will help to narrow the ‘gender gap' and proactively prevent some of the premature deaths and illnesses afflicting men that tragically affect so many families, with such long-lasting negative impact.