Most guys treat doctors as handymen for health. When their chimneys feel stuffed, they call an ear, nose, and throat guy. When their electrical circuits are misfiring, they contact a cardiologist. When their plumbing is clogged, they dial up a urologist.
This is exactly the wrong approach. Doctors should be your partners in health. Your job is to eat right, exercise regularly, sleep well, and proactively monitor your body and mind. Their job is to consult with you routinely—whether you're sick or not—and help you tweak your lifestyle so that you stay fit, happy, and healthy for as long as mortally possible. So let me ask you this: When was the last time you visited your doctor for just a regular, symptom-less checkup? Yeah, I thought so.
We asked a distinguished panel of doctors—all Men’s Health advisors—what men are doing right and wrong when it comes to their health, and what kinds of patients drive them nuts. See if you recognize yourself below.
The Deadbeat Guy
Men are taught to ignore pain; acknowledging symptoms is a sign of weakness. Problem is, the changes can be subtle—shortness of breath during your weekly hoops game, a lingering ache in your testicles. Waiting too long can be just as bad as never calling your doctor. "Don't decide for yourself that there's no problem," says Adnan Nasir, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of dermatology research at Wake Research Associates. "Get an impartial opinion, preferably a medical one."Your Rx!
Here are six symptoms you should never ignore:
- Blood in your stool
- Abrupt vision changes
- Weakness in an arm
- An unusual headache
- Testicular swelling
- Difficulty with speech
The Speechless Guy
Medical schools don't teach mind reading. "Don't assume the doctor is going to blame you for bringing up a concern you think is trivial or silly, or a symptom that your own bad health habits may have contributed to," says Ronald Epstein, M.D., a professor of family medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. And don't think his prodding will detect your ailment. Speak up!Your Rx!
Be assertive. Put your concerns first. At the beginning of the visit, tell your doctor three things that have been on your mind. "Men sometimes build up their symptoms into something worse than they are. Often the answer is less frightening than they imagine," says Dr. Epstein. In fact, here are 5 Scary Symptoms You Can Ignore—they're harmless!
The Uninformed Guy
Doctors cringe inwardly when they encounter ignorance and blank stares. Even though 96 percent of Americans know their family history is important to their own health, only 30 percent collect the necessary information, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Your Rx!
- In your wallet, keep a list of your medications, doses, and what they're treating, along with your blood type and any allergies.
Make a list of questions to ask your doctor, and prioritize them. "Often the answer to one important question will contain the answers to some of the less important issues," says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of the division of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.
- Go to familyhistory.hhs.gov and create a family health history that's easy to update.
The Slacker Guy
Your doctor can do only so much for you in a 20-minute office visit, so take your health into your own hands between appointments. Pick a date that's easy to remember, like your birthday, and vow to note unusual lumps, bumps, and moles (or have your wife check you out).Your Rx!Here are four self-checks you should never skip:
Blood pressure: Every 3 to 6 months
- Testicles: Once a month
- Skin: Once a year—twice if you have fair skin, lots of moles, or burn easily
- Sleep: Every 6 months, record your sack time for a week
The Selfish Guy
Doctors told us that many men have a weird selfishness about health. About one in three workers feel pressure to go to work when they're sick with the flu, according to a survey from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Coworkers suffer the infectious consequences. At home, selfishness takes the form of not thinking about how your serious illness (or sudden death) could affect your family.Your Rx!
Bundle medical appointments. Cramming several into one day is a great way to take care of health business. "Spending 1/365th of the year seeing doctors is a small time commitment," says Dr. Nasir. Some doctors and laboratories offer evening and weekend hours, too.
The Lying Guy
At one point or another, everyone has fudged the truth, skipped meds, blown off physical therapy. But you're not fooling anyone. Most doctors can quickly figure out when a patient is lying. "It could be out of embarrassment, but for the most part it reflects a patient's unwillingness to objectively look at parts of his health that might be failing," says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., medical director of the Sleep Medicine Center at Martha Jefferson Hospital. Of course, physicians aren't perfect either: Here are 8 Things Your Doctor Isn't Telling You.
Your Rx!Recover from your blunder with this phrase: "I'm sorry. I'm not telling the whole story. Can we start over?"
The Sleepy Guy
Sleep is the One Big Thing doctors wish their patients would do for their long-term health. Yet most men are robbing themselves of this cure-all by not logging enough quality hours in the sack. Consider this: A major sleep problem, sleep apnea, has been linked to hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, acid reflux disease, and obesity."Patients with underlying sleep problems are often misdiagnosed with depression," says Dr. Winter. If you're snapping, it might be from lack of napping.
Your Rx!
Here’s how to clear four common sleep hurdles:
1. Runaway thoughts. Count backward by threes. This forces you to concentrate on something other than your racing thoughts. "It's hard and so boring, you'll fall right asleep," says sleep specialist Michael Breus, Ph.D.
2. Restless legs. Ask her for a rubdown. Men who do a lot of leg work—either aerobic or during weight lifting—may feel an excess of energy coursing through their lower extremities. Massage can help soothe the savage muscle fiber. If your bed partner isn't a beefy-armed masseuse, pummel your quads, glutes, and calves on a foam roller.
3. A dripping faucet. Tune the radio to light static, which will help drown out ambient noise while providing a soothing backdrop to fall asleep to, says Victor Kim, M.D., of the Temple University sleep-disorders center. If noise persists, buy foam earplugs (they won't hurt your ear canals when you turn over) that can block 32 decibels. You'll be able to hear emergency sirens, but not low-level noise.
4. Your mind's still reeling. Read a book. The stimulating content and extra light from TV can keep you awake, but reading helps your brain relax. It's that repetition—line after line, page after page—that helps us fall asleep, says Alex Chediak, M.D., medical director of the Miami Sleep Disorders Center. Drawing or working on a crossword puzzle might help, too.And don’t miss Testosterone Transformation, a new book from Men’s Health that reveals how to unlock the power of your most important hormone to build muscle, lose fat, and live longer!
