Men’s Health Awareness Month

Did you know that the average life expectancy for men in the US is almost 5 years less (76.2 yrs) than women (81 yrs)? Here in the UAE it’s 77.1 yrs for men and 79.1 yrs for women. In the UK, it’s 79.9 yrs for men and 82.9 yrs for women. Amazingly, the difference in lifespan between the genders has remained fairly stable even throughout monumental shifts in society (including huge health and hygiene developments).

It will come as no surprise to you that specific health statistics are generally worse for men than women. Why is this? Are women just born lucky or do they tend to take better care of their wellbeing? It’s seemingly a bit of both.

Obviously it would be convenient for me to assert that diet and lifestyle factors are purely to blame for the size of the gender gap, but research concludes that whilst they are partly responsible, rather these factors serve to explain why the lifespan gender gap is bigger in some countries than others e.g. Russia with a gender lifespan gap of more than 10 years.

So what am I trying to convey here?

Although we don’t know how strong the relative contribution of each of the genetic, behavioural and environmental factors is, we do know that THEY ALL HAVE AN IMPACT.

We know that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men today has to do with some key non-biological factors that have changed like the simple fact that men smoke more. So it’s important that those factors we do have control over, such as our diet and lifestyle are given due care and attention, to give ourselves the best chance of a long and healthy life. This need not, and should not, be something confined to women.

Given that we are now in ‘Movember’ and the focus is on all things men’s health-related, it is fitting then I received this testimonial from a keen and dedicated male client who I worked with for 6 months earlier in the year to help turn his life around for the better.

So take a leaf out of his book because we all need to love ourselves enough to live a healthy lifestyle… especially men!