Ten details that harm health and turn men's longevity into a fantasy

I think no one wants to deal with hospitals, but getting sick is always unavoidable. To stay healthy, we need to change our bad living and eating habits to effectively stay healthy. For men, if you want to improve your quality of life and achieve the goal of longevity, you must read the following ten questions.

1. Several types of cancer that men must pay attention to

Men are more likely to develop cancer than women. Men have about a 50% chance of developing cancer, and once they have cancer, they have about a 70% chance of dying from it.

Take lung cancer for example. Everyone knows that smoking is one of the biggest causes of lung cancer, and there are many more men who smoke than women. So if you are a smoker, don't wait until you have symptoms such as wheezing or shortness of breath to see a doctor. Instead, you should seek advice from a doctor as soon as possible to quit smoking. Although lung cancer can also be caused by exposure to asbestos or radon, for ordinary people, smoking has always been the biggest culprit of lung cancer.

Colorectal cancer is also a common cancer among men. With the increase of age, the risk of colorectal cancer also increases. Studies have shown that 90% of cases occur in people over 50 years old. At the same time, family genetic problems will also lead to an increased risk of colorectal cancer; secondly, lifestyle habits, obesity or unreasonable diet, excessive consumption of red meat, etc. will cause colorectal cancer. It is recommended that men after the age of 50 should have regular colorectal health checks, including stool examinations, blood tests, and enema or colonoscopy tests to make sure there are no signs of disease in your colon.

2. Pay attention to your prostate and testicular health

Just as there are some cancers that are exclusive to women, there are also some cancers that are exclusive to men, including prostate and testicular cancers and penile cancer. Although all three of these cancers are extremely rare, especially the third, there were fewer than 1,500 cases of penile cancer diagnosed in the United States in 2010.

Let's take a general look at prostate cancer and testicular cancer. Although the incidence of prostate cancer is not high, the chance of developing prostate cancer will gradually increase with age. Its symptoms include difficulty urinating or painful urination; painful ejaculation, etc. If you have these symptoms, you can go to the hospital for examination.

Another situation with testicular cancer is that men between the ages of 15 and 35 are most likely to develop testicular cancer. In the early stages of testicular cancer, you can check it yourself. If you find a lump in your testicle, go to the hospital for a check-up immediately.

3. Care about sexual health issues

Most men think that as long as they use condoms during intimacy, they can be completely assured. Unfortunately, some sexually transmitted diseases cannot be avoided just because you take preventive measures. At the same time, some sexually transmitted diseases have no obvious clinical symptoms when they are transmitted. Some symptoms even seem to have nothing to do with sexually transmitted diseases. Based on this, you may need to be completely honest with your doctor during the examination, especially when there is something abnormal in your body or urinary system.

Sometimes doctors will ask you an embarrassing question about your sexual ability, or more precisely, dysfunction. No one wants to admit that they have this problem, but according to a survey by the American medical community, about 18 million people are suffering from the above situation. For those who have hidden diseases, the harm of sexual dysfunction is even greater than heart disease or diabetes. There are many reasons for the disorder. Sometimes it may be caused by the mistaken use of certain drugs or other trivial habits in daily life. Now the technology for treating sexual dysfunction is relatively advanced. As long as you let go of the burden and take it seriously as soon as possible, it is not as serious as you think.

Finally, I would like to remind those men who are preparing to start a family and plan to have a baby that 50% of fertility problems are directly related to men. If you are unable to conceive within a year after putting the pregnancy plan on the agenda, then it is necessary to go to the hospital for a check-up.

4. Be alert to symptoms of hematuria

As mentioned at the beginning, men don't like to go to the hospital, let alone when there are problems in their private parts. At that time, please remember that doctors are professionals. If you have blood mixed in your urine or semen, and accompanied by testicular or groin pain (or lumps and other unusual problems), then please see a doctor immediately.

Usually, blood in the urine or difficulty and pain when urinating may indicate an infection in the urethra, kidneys, or bladder, in which case antibiotics can be used to treat it. However, sometimes it may be a more serious problem, such as an enlarged prostate, kidney stones, or even cancer.

Similarly, if there is blood in your semen, sometimes it may not mean any problem, and the blood will disappear on its own after a period of time, but sometimes it may be a sign of disease.

5. Beware of constipation and diarrhea

Anyone can suffer from constipation and diarrhea for one reason or another. Women experience constipation and diarrhea more often, but they are usually more proactive in seeking help from doctors.

Whether it is chronic constipation or diarrhea, or acute constipation or diarrhea, it is not as simple as people think that it disturbs the digestive system. For example, if a person has alternating constipation and diarrhea, he or she is likely to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Chronic constipation may also be a symptom of colon cancer or thyroid disease; acute diarrhea may be intestinal infection or food poisoning; chronic diarrhea may be a sign of abdominal organ disease.

In short, when diarrhea or constipation symptoms appear, even if they are not caused by the above reasons, corresponding measures should be taken, otherwise these symptoms will not be easy to recover on their own. At the same time, you should consult a doctor for advice and make adjustments to your daily diet and daily routine. Drinking more water, exercising more and eating a balanced diet are the key.

6. Impact of weight problems on health

Being overweight increases the risk of many diseases, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Of course, weight is not everything. A more scientific measure is your BMI. If your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, then even if you appear to be overweight, you still have no weight problems.

It should be noted that there are differences among overweight people. For example, an overweight person with a beer belly is more likely to suffer from heart disease than a person who is overweight but does not have a beer belly. Therefore, many doctors have begun to use waist and hip circumference as a standard for measuring people's health index.

In fact, losing weight is not that difficult. Just losing 5% of your body weight can significantly lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, making you healthier.

7. What physical examinations do men need to take?

I believe that many people have had a physical examination, but how many people really know what the physical examination checks for and what effect the medicines prescribed by the doctor after the examination have?

A general physical examination consists of three parts: a basic physical examination, a medical history examination, and a body scan. Unlike women, men will undergo a prostate examination. The doctor will decide whether you need this examination based on your age and other related symptoms. Please believe that this examination is necessary because it can help you find out whether the prostate is enlarged or whether a tumor has formed. The former will make your excretion difficult, while the latter will endanger your life.

Finally, it is recommended that after your doctor prescribes medicine for you, do not forget to ask about the side effects of these medicines on your body, and listen to the doctor's advice in time to correct bad living habits.

8. Beware of depression

For a large number of men, admitting that they have depression is tantamount to admitting that they are failures and weak. However, depression has been identified as a human disease in modern medicine, and diseases must be treated. In the United States, about 6 million people are suffering from depression, and this number is even greater in developing countries.

Men are more likely to commit suicide after suffering from depression than women, because it is more difficult for men to confide their negative emotions to others than women. The symptoms of depression are the more common low mood, extreme sadness, and isolation. But in fact, frequent fatigue, unexplained body pain, irritability, and disordered eating or binge eating are all symptoms of depression.

If you have a family history of mental illness or have suffered severe psychological trauma in your life, you are very likely to develop depression. Fortunately, there are many ways to treat depression, including medication and psychotherapy. You just need to go to a psychiatrist or psychologist for a checkup, and they can provide you with professional treatment. Depression may affect all aspects of your life, in addition to the points mentioned above, it will also affect your relationships with others, so you must pay attention to it.

9. The impact of genetic diseases and lifestyle habits on health

No matter how different you think you are from your family, you share the same genes. Sometimes this means that you have a very high chance of developing certain diseases, sometimes even close to 100%. For example, if your parents have heart disease, then you have a very high chance of developing heart disease.

At the same time, diseases caused by lifestyle habits will also be passed on to your next generation. For example, if one of your parents suffers from type 2 diabetes before the age of 50, then you have a 14% chance of suffering from the same disease.

On the other hand, bad living habits in the family will also affect the health of the entire family. For example, men smoking and drinking will have a negative impact on the next generation.

10. Face up to male menopause

Male menopause is still a controversial medical topic. However, more and more medical professionals realize that men, like women, will experience various physical symptoms due to age. The main reason is the decline of androgens (male hormones or testosterone). Unlike women, there is no clear age reference standard for male menopause. Because men do not stop secreting body hormones after menopause like women do, some men will continue to secrete body hormones even when they are 70 years old, but the difference is not as strong as when they were young. Sometimes the secretion of this hormone will drop by as much as 50% with age.

The decline in male hormone production can lead to some unpleasant symptoms, such as hot flashes, insomnia, lack of energy, loss of libido and depression. If you are in your 50s, it is best to go to the hospital for some tests to confirm that the above symptoms are caused by normal menstrual cycles and not some other potential diseases. The simplest is to do a blood test, which can detect your male hormone secretion level. Sometimes doctors will recommend that you inject some testosterone to help alleviate menopausal symptoms, but please note that doing so will increase your risk of prostate cancer.