5 Top Health Risks for Men

Good health is the desire for all men. Still, there are chances that something may harm your health. These are health risk issues and they are damaging in nature. Health risk problems may vary in severity and impact. While most health risks are minor and go away without any interventions, some medical complications may need emergency treatment. So you need to be aware of such conditions. Below are five top health risks you should know of.

1. Cardiovascular diseases

Heart diseases pose great health risks to men of all ages. They are the leading killer of men in many countries. In the US alone, heart complications accounted for a quarter of all men's deaths in 2013.

The truth is that you can’t tell when you have a condition until it’s probably too late. This trait has earned it the name the “silent killer.” Heart disease patients don’t register any warning signs. Thus, many men don’t seek medical assistance until their conditions turn critical.

For this reason, you should take preventive measures. Understanding the factors that trigger or may accelerate cardiovascular disease is one such step. These are broadly classified as conditional and behavioral factors.

Symptoms related to diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels are a precursor to heart disease. So you need to monitor these situations.

Some behaviors can be detrimental to your heart health. If you smoke and drink a lot, then you risk your heart. Leading a sedentary life can also bring similar outcomes.

2. Prostate complications

Prostate complications also contribute to men’s health risks. The prostate gland is essential for reproduction and urination.

Despite its small size, the prostate does so much work of clearing waste from your body. So support it to function optimally.

One way to augment your prostate is through exercising the pelvis muscles. Another way is to empty your seminal fluids frequently.

If you don’t do these, then the muscles that regulate the prostate weaken. Weak veins starve the prostate of nutrients necessary for it to work well. Hence leading to a pileup of the waste matter.

The resulting crystallized fatty waste is hard to excrete and so they clog the track. What follows is slower urination and more waste accumulation. And if this scenario is left unattended, it results in an enlarged prostate.

The worst form of prostate complication is prostate cancer. Even with the warning signs, prostate cancer still inflicts about 11% of men. Still, even with medical advances, screening for prostate cancer as well as management and treatment remain dreadful.

3. Mental health

Mental stability is yet another health issue confronting men. A large proportion of males are engaged in risky and even outright dangerous occupations. Still, they have to work long hours to make ends meet.

These men suffer from excessive anxiety exacerbated by these harmful working conditions. Yet the cultural and societal expectations are that men have to man up and stay put even under the most excruciating circumstances.

The pressure to perform and the expectation to succeed eventually culminate into depression. Depressive tendencies are easy to spot in women since these women exhibit signs of mood swings and sadness.

Men, on the other hand, may demonstrate depression through aggression and violence. These anger fits make it hard to detect the underlying trigger, even though 20% of men harbor suicidal thoughts in their lifetime.

As these men fall deep into the abyss, depressed men start to think about suicide. And since these men keep their worries vented, they fail to seek peer intervention.

With loneliness and dejection entrenching, some men can’t bear the stress longer. These men actually commit suicides.

4. Diabetes

To stay healthy, you should also watch out for insulin intolerance. Taking too much sugary and oily meals causes this diabetes precondition. The unhealthy foodstuff distorts normal hormone functions that result in inadequate glucose absorption.

Yet parents still cherish processed and fast foods that trigger insulin imbalance. A 2003 study established that a third of children born in 2000 are likely to suffer from type II diabetes.

Diabetes not only reduces the quality of life. It also propagates many other chronic ailments. These include high blood pressure, fatigue, and blindness. Further, it also triggers kidney failure, strokes, and even limb amputation.

The good news is that you can prevent diabetes, except for the type caused by congenital deficiencies. It all starts with your diet. Eat food rich in vegetables and green. Also, include various fruits and nuts in your meals.

When you incorporate physical activities, you help your kidney function better and use blood sugar properly.

5. Environmental Quality

Pollution affects all, but men suffer the brunt of extreme environmental pollution. Men from low-income regions tend to live and work in areas where pollution is most severe.

Compared to the average population, a higher proportion of men experience the worst forms of pollution. This exposure results in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is leading cancer in the United States. Its kills more men than colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. But the situation continues to become dire. In 2019 alone, another 116,000 new cases were detected.

But even with these grim statistics, some men make the situation much worse. They continue smoking well knowing that this vice contributes to all but just 10% of lung cancer infections.

What makes this form of cancer lethal is its detection. Lung cancer is hard to diagnose early. The only way to evade it is through prevention.

Yet men continue to smoke as a trend. On a positive note, the number of smokers is declining.

In conclusion, we have shared what we know about the top five health risks for men. We hope that we have provided you with enough information regarding health risks for men for you to avoid these risks for better health outcomes.