November is Movember: Men's Health Awareness Month
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To improve men's health, it's important to raise awareness about preventive screenings and regular health care for men of all ages. Interventions to reduce smoking and drinking and promote healthy behaviors also can help prevent diseases and improve men's health. In general, doctors recommend that men make choices that benefit their overall health.
Many studies on overall men’s health have been done and the top men’s health issues include heart disease, cancer and unintentional injury. Thankfully, most men's health threats are largely preventable. Making healthy lifestyle choices, such as eating a healthy diet, including physical activity and managing your mental health in your daily routine can help prevent many diseases and chronic illness.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number one cause of death in men of all ages is cardiovascular disease (CVD). About 697,000 people in the United States died from heart disease in 2020 — that's 1 in every 5 deaths. That means preventing CVD is an important thing you can do for your health; regardless of whether you have prostate cancer or other underlying conditions. Fortunately, you can do something to improve your heart health — start by increasing regular exercise, eating right and checking your cholesterol and blood pressure. In fact, knowing your cholesterol and blood pressure numbers is just as important as knowing your latest PSA results. With your doctor’s advice, making simple changes to your eating habits and exercise regimen can help make a difference in your overall heart health.
Nutrition
Nutrition is an important part of overall health and wellness. Balancing your diet can be a challenge at the best of times, but as we get older it is even more important. The right balance of proteins and calories can help your body stay strong and healthy — to strengthen the immune system and create a preventative barrier to illness. Eating in a healthful manner may provide more energy for you to exercise, to spend time with family and friends or be productive at work. It may be important to consider working with a registered dietitian to help with specific nutritional needs. For more information on nutrition click here.
A healthier lifestyle means making smart choices whenever possible. Below are some things to keep in mind regarding your nutrition.
Count Your Calories:
To maintain your weight, monitor your intake of fat caloriesRead nutrition labels:
NO foods high in total fat, saturated fat, & cholesterolWatch your portion sizes: Do not overeat. Eat smaller portions of food.
Choose the most nutritionally rich foods you can from each food group each day — low calorie foods packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber and other essential nutrient.
Exercise
Besides making healthy choices in your diet, part of overall health is exercise. Men should start an exercise routine. Resistance exercise can help reduce symptoms of fatigue and also strengthens muscles. Cardio exercise is good for your heart and can help you maintain your weight, or it can help you lose weight. Men who exercise may have a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Exercise has many other health benefits and may reduce your risk of heart disease and other cancers. If you are overweight or obese, work on losing weight. You can do this by reducing the number of calories you eat each day and increasing the amount of exercise you do. If you have a healthy weight, work to maintain it by exercising most days of the week and choosing a healthy diet that's rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Before starting any exercise program, always talk with your doctor to ensure that your program is safe for your physical condition. For more information on exercise click here.
A Balanced Exercise Plan
Mixing different types of physical activity helps both to keep your workouts interesting and improve your overall health. The key is to find activities that you enjoy—based on the four building blocks of fitness. These are: balance, cardio, strength & power training, flexibility.
Balance maintains standing and stability, whether you’re stationary or moving around. Yoga, Tai Chi, and posture exercises will aid in having confidence with balance.
Cardio get your heart pumping. Helps lessen fatigue and shortness of breath. Promotes independence by improving endurance. Includes walking, stair climbing, swimming, hiking, cycling, rowing, tennis, and dancing.
Strength & Power Training repetitive motion using weight or external resistance from body weight, machines, free weights, or elastic bands. Strength training helps prevent loss of bone mass, builds muscle, and improves balance—both important in staying active and avoiding falls. Power training can improve your speed. Building strength and power will help you stay independent and make day-to-day activities easier such as opening a jar, getting in and out of a car, and lifting objects.
Flexibility helps your body stay limber and increases your range of movement for ordinary physical activities. This can be done through stationary stretches and stretches that involve movement to keep your muscles and joints supple and less prone to injury. Yoga is an excellent means of improving flexibility, as well as water aerobics/sports, walking and Qi Gong.
Benefiting from the rewards of exercise doesn’t have to involve strenuous workouts, it's about adding more movement and activity to your life, even in small ways. No matter your age or physical condition, it’s never too late to get your body moving, boost your health and outlook, and improve how you age.
Recovery and Self-Care
Recovery after exercise is essential to muscle and tissue repair and strength building. This is even more critical because as we age the body changes. Keep this in mind when building your exercise plan, pace out your sessions well. Don’t feel guilty about taking time out to recover. Limited research reports suggest that with increasing age muscles tend to recover more slowly after a bout of exercise, whether it is strength or endurance training. Therefore, rest and hydration are essential after exercise, especially as aging sets in.
The most important thing for your body and exercise recovery is to listen to the body. If you are feeling tired, sore or notice decreased performance you may need more recovery time or a break from exercise altogether. Pay attention, in most cases, the body will communicate what it needs, when it needs it. Listen and be kind to the body, and the body will be kind to you.
When you eat healthy food and exercise, your whole body is affected in a positive way. Regular physical activity helps you look and feel younger and stay independent longer. It also lowers your risk for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s and dementia, heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, high blood pressure, and obesity. And the mood benefits of exercise can be just as great at 60 or 70 as they were at 20 or 30. Getting active is one of the healthiest decisions you can make as you age, but it doesn’t complete the full scope of wellness. Managing our emotional and mental health is just as important as nutrition and exercise.
Experiment with Mindfulness
Instead of zoning out when you exercise, try to focus on how your body feels as you move — the rhythm of your breathing, the way your feet strike the ground, your muscles flexing. You’ll improve your physical condition faster, better help to relieve stress and anxiety, and more likely to avoid accidents or injuries.
For more information on wellness and self-care click here.
MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Your state of mind has played, and will continue to play, a critical role in your life journey. From staying positive to controlling your diet and exercise routine, your overall mental health is a cornerstone in a healthy balanced life. It is normal as a human, you may experience new or difficult feelings at any time in your life. You do not have to face this alone without tools to cope.
Recently, more people have recognized mindfulness and mindfulness training as a way to decrease stress and increase psychological functioning. Studies have found benefits to practicing mindfulness; these including increased calm, enhanced sleep quality, more energy, less physical pain, and increased well-being. These findings show that through mindfulness, you may be able to enhance your capacity to handle the life stresses that affect the body’s ability to function day to day and heal in times of sickness.
Mindfulness is described as a practice that is about living life as if it matters, to pay attention with kindness and respect to moment-to-moment experiences, no matter how seemingly mundane. It’s about being present in the moments of your life. Mindfulness can help us to experience life with greater clarity, balance, and gratitude, one moment at a time.
One of the many benefits of practicing mindfulness is that it can promote healing, both physically and emotionally/psychologically. By helping to regulate emotions and allowing a patient to work with the physical pain in the body, mindfulness has helped bring a sense of peace to many people living with cancer and chronic illness.
Here are some tips on how you can practice mindfulness and the benefits therein.
Make Gratitude A Part of Your Routine.
Work on Your Breathing.Meditation.
Increase Your Awareness.
Watch the World Go By.
Take Control of Your Thoughts.
Take 10 Minutes to Do Nothing.
Meditation is a means of transforming the mind and is described as the written, spoken, or internal dialogue expressing considered thoughts on a subject. It can be done anywhere, for any amount of time, without special equipment or clothing and minimal training. Meditation practices are techniques that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emotional positivity, and a calm seeing of the true nature of things. By engaging with meditation, you can learn the patterns and habits of your mind, and the practice offers a means to cultivate new, more positive ways of being.
More than 3,000 scientific studies have been conducted on the benefits of meditation, and include positive outcomes for the treatment of depression, anxiety, lack of concentration, high blood pressure, inflammatory disorders, asthma, PMS, Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and more. Many doctors encourage patients to incorporate this ancient practice into their lives to promote well-being, positive outlooks and even faster recoveries. Research has shown that eight weeks of mindfulness meditation may elevate serum serotonin levels – a compound in the brain that can affect mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory and sexual desire and function – resulting in a significant decrease in depression, anxiety and stress as well as decreased acute or chronic pain. With regular work and patience these nourishing experiences can have a transformative effect and can lead to a new understanding of life.
Here are some tips on how you can practice meditation and the benefits therein.
Find Your Space. Set up a meditation space.
Find Time. Choose a time when your mind is calm.
Establish a Routine.
Be Comfortable.
Remember to Breathe.
Detach yourself from every-day worries.
Focus.
Observe.
Meditate.
Above you will find 6 infographics that display some tips and tricks to keep your overall health and wellness at tip top shape. It also includes very important information on what screening should take place and at what stages of you life. The International Prostate Cancer Foundation site, www.fightingprostatecancer.org offers a complete overview of information about the prostate, prostate cancer, and its treatment, and educational materials. To download these infographics and more click here.
If you choose to take control of your own health and wellness plan, here are a few health management strategies to follow. And more strategies and helpful information can be found in the resources center. Including a lifestyle assessment to see where you land in your current health and wellness routine.
Stay nourished
Eat colorful plant foods
Skip the alcohol and tobacco
Keep moving and active
Manage your emotions and mental health
Incorporate meditation or quiet reflective time into your daily routine.
Stay positive
The International Prostate Cancer Foundation site, www.fightingprostatecancer.org offers a complete overview of information about the prostate, prostate cancer, and its treatment, and educational materials. Visit the Education Center or the Resources Center to educate yourself on the prostate cancer journey. Learning about the disease is the first level of support for caregiving.