Men’s health issues are pretty much the same everywhere in the developed world.
Men are often reluctant to visit a health professional so they may miss out on chances to improve their health and prevent illness. Delaying seeking medical advice can sometimes turn a relatively minor health problem into a more serious concern. Men get much less active encouragement to use health services than women. Some health centres offer men’s-specific health checks, but there could be many more of them. In a survey of GPs, men had fewer tests and investigations, received less health advice than women, and therefore have less chance to build a relationship with their doctor or nurse. Men can find it hard to talk about physical discomfort or emotional distress. Research shows that men don’t live as long as women and are more at risk of accidents, injuries, suicide and some illnesses. Statistically, men of lower socio-economic status, and men who live alone, have more health problems. Men have fewer years free from disability and poor health. Not to mention the statistics on smoking, drinking and obesity.
What can we do about these issues?
Clearly men don’t like being told what to do, particularly about men’s health issues. And the current prescriptive climate amongst medical practitioners needs to be recognised as a contributing factor to the reluctance for men to seek medical advice.
Why visit a doctor who has only 15 minutes to spend with you, nowhere near long enough to start talking about the real issues, when past experience tells us that all we’ll get is a prescription to ease the symptoms.
Given that many men ignore their health issues in the hope they will go away and they tend to avoid treatment for fear of what they might learn or have to go through, what are the alternatives?
Most organisations set up to target men’s health issues suggest something similar to this three-point plan for men’s health:
Have a health check now – it may help prevent problems later Take action to stay healthy – eat well and exercise regularly Get early help with any problem – it will make you feel better.
But many men feel that this is just more of the same.
Two Real Alternatives
There are real alternatives to dealing with men’s health issues, one based on the spirit and the other anchored in the body. And they can be used together.
Alternative 1: Disease is not material in origin
Dr Edward Bach, the man behind the Bach Flower Remedies, determined that:
Disease will never be cured or eradicated by present materialistic methods, for the simple reason that disease in its origin is not material.This sentence alone has profound consequences, particularly as he goes on to say…What we know as disease is an ultimate result produced in the body, the end product of deep and long acting forces, and even if material treatment alone is apparently successful this is nothing more than a temporary relief unless the real cause has been removed.
The modern trend of medical science, by misinterpreting the true nature of disease and concentrating it in materialistic terms in the physical body, has enormously increased its power, firstly, by distracting the thoughts of people from its true origin and hence from the effective method of attack, and secondly, by localising it in the body, thus obscuring true hope of recovery and raising a mighty disease complex of fear, which should never have existed. (my emphasis)
And this was written in 1931!
Alternative 2: Detoxification of the body
The second alternative is more recent. And it rests on the increasing evidence that physical disease is anchored in the toxins we absorb from our environment. And city living is definitely a toxic environment!
While this second path is a version of the material treatment mentioned above, it does have the benefit of taking a more holistic view than most modern medical practitioners. Rather than focussing on the symptom, there is a strong element of addressing the cause.
The rationale is that by ridding the body of toxins, the opportunity for disease to find an anchor is reduced. The side effect of this is greater vitality, weight loss and more energy.
Take a holistic approach to men’s health issues and use them together!
A homeopathic treatment takes time and results are not immediately apparent, which really doesn’t suit our modern urge for instant gratification.
By using the two approaches together, you can address men’s health issues with both a short term ,”I want to see results”, mentality and a longer term, “I want to address the true origin of this disease”.
