Healthy Men, Healthy World
The 19th of November is International Men’s Day. The Australian Men’s Health Forum (AMHF) have declared the theme for 2023 is ‘Healthy Men, Healthy World’.
All men are encouraged to make time to take care of their health. This includes:
• Seeing your GP for regular check-ups if needed. Men normally die earlier than women, one of important factor is that men avoid doctors (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6142142/).
• Maintaining a healthy weight – being overweight increases the risks of many health conditions
• Eating a healthy diet which is low in fat, sugar, salt and processed foods and rich in healthy choices including plenty of vegetables, fruit, lean meats/seafood, healthy dairy and grains
• Avoiding or limiting alcohol
• Not smoking
• Getting regular exercise.
Many conditions can be improved by following the above.
It is also important to check for common chronic conditions that may affect your heath. These include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, fatty liver etc.
You should also check for other conditions such as blood borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections. Many people may have these conditions including hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV and STIs and not know as they often do not have any symptoms until the conditions start to cause damage to the body such as the liver.
It important to talk to your doctor and ask for these tests if you have not been tested before, or if you have been told you have these infections before but have not been having regular check-ups – for most people with chronic hepatitis B this is every 6 months.
Think of it like you do to look after your car, you get it serviced, change the oil, check tyre pressure and make sure it is running well so it doesn’t break down – you should think the same way about your body and health.
For more information, please see our webpage www.eccq.com/bbv or contact us at ECCQ. Either call 07-3844 9166 or email us at health@eccq.com.au
