Collin County Living Well Magazine May/June 2017

MEN'S HEALTH Game Plan for Good Health Guys: Here are your biggest health threats—and what you can do about them. W Courtesy Baylor Scott &White Health hen it comes to staying well, women usually fare bet- ter than men. But is the fairer sex simply healthier by nature, or are there other factors involved? “I don’t know that gender really plays a role, other than in the way health care is utilized. Men tend to wait until things get bad, where with women, we tend to find problems earlier because they come and get them checked out” as part of their annual exams, says Raymond J. Harrison, MD, MBA, an internal medicine physician at Baylor Scott & White Clinic – Copperas Cove. Guys, you don’t have to wait until things get bad. Do yourself and your family a favor and set aside two hours every year to see a doctor and make sure everything is A-OK—and if it’s not OK, to get profes- sional advice on how to be healthy. In the meantime, before your next checkup (you have made that appointment, right?), here is a heads-up about some of the biggest health threats facing men—diabetes, heart disease and cancer—and how you can reduce your risk. DIABETES KNOW YOUR RISKS: Being overweight or obese; having high blood sugar, high blood pressure and high cholesterol; and aging are among the biggest risk factors. Bigger still are genetic predisposi- tion and race, Dr. Harrison says. “For example, people of Hispanic descent and Pacific Islanders are more likely to develop diabetes than people of European descent.” African-Americans, Asian-Americans and American Indians are also at greater risk, according to the Ameri- can Diabetes Association. TAKE ACTION: Controlling your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol and eating a healthy diet are key, as are exercising regu- larly and maintaining a healthy weight. In fact, losing just 5 to 10 percent of your body weight (that’s 10 to 20 pounds for a 200-pound man) can significantly reduce your risk. “For anybody who has the genetic predisposition to diabetes, as soon as they lose the weight, most of the time their diabetes goes into remission,” Dr. Harrison says. “And one of the interesting things we see in patients with diabetes who have gastric bypass surgery is that within a week or two it’s in remission.” HEART DISEASE KNOW YOUR RISKS: Men are more likely than women to develop heart disease and to have a heart attack. Besides gender, other risk factors include smoking and having diabetes. 58 COLLIN COUNTY Living Well Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2017 Losing just 5-10% of your body weight can significantly reduce your risk for diabetes.

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