Denton County Living Well Magazine May/June 2018 | Page 48
Game Plan
for Good
Health
Courtesy Baylor Scott & White Health
G
uys: Here are your biggest health threats—and
what you can do about them
When it comes to staying well, women usually
fare better 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 prob-
lems 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 your-
self 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 professional 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 re-
duce 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 big-
gest risk factors. Bigger still
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DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2018
are genetic predisposition and race, Dr. Harrison says.
“For example, people of Hispanic descent and Pacific Is-
landers are more likely to develop diabetes than people
of European descent.” African-Americans, Asian-Ameri-
cans and American Indians are also at greater risk, ac-
cording to the American Diabetes Association.
Take action: Controlling your blood sugar, blood pres-
sure and cholesterol and eating a healthy diet are key,
as are exercising regularly 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 interest-
ing 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 wom-
en to develop heart dis-
ease and to have a heart
attack. Besides gender,
other risk factors include
smoking and having dia-
betes.
Take action: Quitting
tobacco, eating a healthy
diet, exercising, and con-
trolling your blood pres-
sure and cholesterol will
go a long way. And these