Batting a Healthy Thousand-Your Men’s Health Playbook

The best way to stay on top of your game is to be proac­tive about your health. On aver­age, men do not see physi­cians for year­ly phys­i­cal exams or health screen­ings near­ly as often as women. At Duly we want to help men make the best plays towards being their health­i­est self. Let’s bat­ter up and walk through the top nine plays to win your health game.

Inning 1 – Gen­er­al Health 

Sched­ul­ing your annu­al check­up with a pri­ma­ry care provider, even if you’re feel­ing good, pro­motes a healthy lifestyle and keeps you ahead of any pos­si­ble game-changers. 

At your annu­al vis­it, you’ll want to cov­er the bases by dis­cussing your med­ical and fam­i­ly health his­to­ry, any cur­rent med­ica­tions or aller­gies, and lifestyle habits such as diet, exer­cise and alco­hol or tobac­co use. Your care team will coach you on lifestyle changes, immu­niza­tions or addi­tion­al test­ing need­ed to keep you at your hap­pi­est and healthiest. 

Inning 2 – Diet, Nutri­tion & Exercise 

When it comes to diet and exer­cise, it’s best to play the long game. A good ball­park hot dog and beer are okay here and there, but a bal­anced, nutri­tious diet with prop­er por­tions can improve your over­all health. Focus on nutri­ent-dense fruits and veg­eta­bles and lim­it­ing sat­u­rat­ed fats to help reduce the risk of heart dis­ease and boost your over­all ener­gy. A great proven exam­ple is the Mediter­ranean Diet. 

An all-star ath­lete work­out reg­i­men isn’t nec­es­sary either. Mov­ing your body for 30 min­utes every day with a brisk walk or run­ning around with your kids goes a long way in reduc­ing stress and pre­vent­ing chron­ic con­di­tions like Type 2 Dia­betes.

Inning 3 – Skin Health 

Don’t for­get about your skin health! As we start to spend more time out­side, it’s more impor­tant than ever to gear up to pro­tect your skin and apply sun­screen dai­ly to avoid skin dam­age. Try to lim­it your time out­side when the sun’s rays are the strongest, typ­i­cal­ly from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. regard­less of your skin type. Make sure your select­ed sun­screen is labeled broad-spec­trum, so it pro­tects against both UVA and UVB rays.

Skin can­cer screen­ings are also an impor­tant play you can make to help pre­vent skin can­cer. Dur­ing a skin check, your pri­ma­ry care or der­ma­tol­ogy provider will exam­ine moles, birth­marks and oth­er pig­ment­ed areas that may look abnor­mal in col­or, shape, size or tex­ture. Skin can­cer screen­ings should be done at least once per year and some­times more often if you have a his­to­ry of skin cancer.

Inning 4 – Sight & Hear­ing Health 

Make sure you keep your eyes and ears out for any foul balls when it comes to your sight and hear­ing health! Hear­ing loss is com­mon, affect­ing approx­i­mate­ly one in four adults by the age of 65. We rec­om­mend get­ting a base­line audio­gram per­formed by the age of 60 if you are not expe­ri­enc­ing any hear­ing-relat­ed symp­toms. If you have hear­ing-relat­ed con­cerns includ­ing ring­ing in the ears, a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of hear­ing loss or are fre­quent­ly exposed to loud nois­es at work or dur­ing recre­ation­al hob­bies, we rec­om­mend start­ing your screen­ings earlier.

It is also nor­mal for you to expe­ri­ence changes in your vision through­out your life, and as you age, your risk of devel­op­ing cer­tain eye con­di­tions increas­es as well. For most peo­ple, changes in their eyes begin in their ear­ly to mid-40s. Your eyes under­go sig­nif­i­cant changes as you age. It is impor­tant to com­plete an annu­al, com­pre­hen­sive eye exam with a Duly Optometrist to mon­i­tor for any eye or vision prob­lems that may be developing. 

Inning 5 – Heart Health 

It’s so impor­tant to keep your heart health in check! Car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, includ­ing heart dis­ease and heart fail­ure, claims more lives in the Unit­ed States. than any oth­er ill­ness. Ear­ly detec­tion and pre­ven­tion are crit­i­cal to play­ing your best game. 

Be sure to sched­ule reg­u­lar check-ups with your pri­ma­ry care provider or car­di­ol­o­gist to check on your blood pres­sure, review your fam­i­ly his­to­ry and make a game plan for heart-healthy lifestyle choic­es. These are the best ways to keep your heart in tip-top shape!

Inning 6 – Men­tal Health 

Seek­ing out help for men­tal health may not always seem easy. Ask­ing for help with a prob­lem shows signs of both brav­ery and resource­ful­ness. Ther­a­py can address a mul­ti­tude of issues from the every­day stres­sors of life to depres­sion and anxiety. 

Think of a men­tal health provider as your own per­son­al relief pitch­er. Reg­u­lar men­tal health check-ins with a behav­ioral and men­tal health provider can pro­vide guid­ance and rec­om­men­da­tions on cop­ing with a stress­ful work envi­ron­ment or how to ask for what you need from your loved ones. 

Inning 7 – Sex­u­al Health 

Dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting or main­tain­ing an erec­tion can be frus­trat­ing and some­times embar­rass­ing. Many men assume that the issue stems sole­ly from their groin area, or a men­tal block, but that is not always the case!

While erec­tile dys­func­tion can be caused by a vari­ety of issues includ­ing stress, if the prob­lem per­sists for more than three months, you shouldn’t ignore it. Pro­longed peri­ods of erec­tile dys­func­tion could be a symp­tom of oth­er under­ly­ing health con­di­tions includ­ing ele­vat­ed blood pres­sure or high cho­les­terol. Smok­ing and oth­er chron­ic con­di­tions like dia­betes, low testos­terone or depres­sion are also linked to erec­tile dysfunction.

It is impor­tant to know that there are treat­ment options for all sever­i­ties of erec­tile dys­func­tion and you’re not alone. A Duly Urol­o­gist will help you get back in the game by dis­cussing your symp­toms and treatment.

Inning 8 – Col­orec­tal Health 

There are no excus­es in base­ball or your health. Stay­ing on top of pre­ven­tive screen­ings, like a colonoscopy, sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­ers your risk of devel­op­ing col­orec­tal cancer. 

Col­orec­tal can­cer remains the lead­ing cause of can­cer-relat­ed deaths among men and women in the Unit­ed States today. If you’re at aver­age risk of devel­op­ing col­orec­tal can­cer, you should sched­ule your first colonoscopy when you turn 45. Colonoscopy screen­ings are the gold stan­dard for col­orec­tal can­cer pre­ven­tion and detection. 

Inning 9 – Prostate Health 

Every 13 in 100 men will devel­op prostate can­cer in their life­time. There­fore, it is rec­om­mend­ed to sched­ule an annu­al prostate screen­ing exam start­ing at age 50. 

While prostate can­cer and oth­er prostate con­di­tions often don’t affect men until lat­er in life, there are plays you can start today to main­tain your prostate health. Eat­ing a well-bal­anced diet, exer­cis­ing reg­u­lar­ly, drink­ing plen­ty of flu­ids and lim­it­ing alco­hol and tobac­co use, have all been linked to a health­i­er prostate. Bring in the clos­er as you reach 50 by sched­ul­ing your prostate exam with your pri­ma­ry care provider or Urologist.

The best way you can stay healthy is to be proac­tive. Don’t wait until the bot­tom of the ninth to get your health in the game! Sched­ule a check-up with a Duly Health and Care provider today >