June 20, 2023 • 25 mins
In this episode of the Community Check-In, Dr. Mark Brown, family physician and medical director at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, discusses the importance of addressing men's health. He encourages hesitant individuals to consider the benefits of early intervention and shares personal experiences that emphasize the importance of proactive healthcare. Host Joe and Dr. Brown also delve into the role of healthcare disparities and how they affect men's health, particularly among minority populations.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Welcome to excel Us Blue Cross BlueShields Community check In. Each week,
we cover a specific topic featuring excelUs Blue Cross Blue Shield experts. You'll
get to know our team as wediscuss the latest in healthcare, health education,
and community health. Find us atexcel Us BCBS dot com and follow
(00:25):
on Instagram and Facebook. I'm Joelomonico, and welcome to this week's check in.
When men get together, I wouldsuspect it's a good bet that we
don't talk about health unless it's rememberthat time I did something a bit far
afield and got injured, or hey, let me show you this carpentery close
(00:45):
call that I had. But otherthan that. According to a twenty sixteen
national survey by the Cleveland Clinic,it confirms what you may be suspecting.
Men don't talk about their health withone another, and according to that survey,
just over half fifty three percent ofmen said that health isn't something that
they talk about. They're more likelyto discuss current events at thirty six percent,
(01:07):
sports at thirty two percent, jobat thirty two percent, and then
their health at just seven percent,and having discussions about it with their male
friends. So I am going totake this one for you, gentlemen,
and I'm going to handle well mostof the talking anyways. The rest of
it will be done by our guest, doctor Mark Brown, a Board certified
family physician with over thirty years ofexperience in primary care and community outreach,
(01:30):
and is a medical director at ExcellisBlue Cross, Blue Shield. Doctor Brown,
Welcome to the community check in.Thank you Joe, glad to be
here. Let's just start off byreally identifying why do you believe and why
is it so important for men todiscuss their health with their peer group with
other men. Well, it's importantto note that many diseases don't have a
(01:55):
lot of symptoms, and we needto gust those as men amongst one another
so that we can learn and growfrom each other. Also, data shows
that men don't live as long aswomen. Women's average life expectancy is up
to eighty years, whereas for menit's just seventy five years. And looking
deeper into some of that data,amongst black men, their life expectancy is
(02:20):
only sixty eight years, so that'sabout seven years shorter than their counterparts.
So there's a lot of good reasonsto discuss health and to educate one another
as we interact, because you canlearn from each other preventative screenings that are
important to catch health issues early on, and also just learning how to navigate
the healthcare system. And men canlearn that from one another because we can
(02:43):
recommend good doctors to each other andgood ways to take care of ourselves.
I think maybe I think you mightagree that maybe we need to just get
over ourselves a little bit and toknow that we can have these conversations and
we can be vulnerable with each otherand have these conversations and it doesn't diminish
(03:04):
anything, and in fact, itonly helps. It can really help those
men in our peer group to say, you know, they maybe can they
may have felt something or thought something, and maybe get them to make those
next steps very important. I thinkthe key word that I pick up on
there is vulnerability. We've heard alot more about that lately, and men
are more likely to try to hidelimit deal with at a later point healthcare
(03:34):
issues. If something hurts, ifsomething doesn't feel right, they tend to
put it off more than women do. Yeah, so let's talk about some
health issues that are unique to menand that are more likely to affect them
and let's start. Let's start rightwith the big one, prostate and prostate
cancer, and let's talk a littlebit about that. Because this is something
(03:57):
it gets a profile, it hasa month, but yet it's still one
of these things that winds up notbeing talked about or maybe hushed talked about.
Yes, I think probably because ofthe role the prostate lays. It's
not as well known as say somethinglike breast cancer. But it's very important
for men to realize that prostate healthis essential. If we live long enough,
(04:20):
almost all men are going to encountersome kind of an issue with their
prostate, whether it's getting up togo to the bathroom a few times at
night, all the way to prostatecancer. So when you have some of
those symptoms, they definitely should bechecked out. But even before you develop
those symptoms, in terms of prostatehealth, it's important to realize that there
(04:40):
are screening tests and exams that canbe done to prevent or find cancer early
on. So men are sometimes reluctantto go to their physicians to get checked
out because the prostate often involves arectal exam. But trust me, it's
so much more important that we getthat screening done early and make sure that
(05:03):
there is no problem. For example, I can tell you of a cousin
of mine who was diagnosed with prostatecancer at the age of thirty five.
Now that's not common, but weneed to get the screening done, especially
if we're at risks because he hada parent, a father who died at
the age of fifty five of prostatecancer. So there's obviously some genetic link
(05:28):
there, and for a small percentagesof these cancers, if it runs in
the family, that's one of thosethings that should get checked out. A
few questions on that, if Imay, because I'm a man of a
certain age. I'm fifty three yearsold this year, so I've been regularly
screened for prostate issues as we goon, Just from a medical standpoint,
why is it that this is oneof those things that most men, if
(05:51):
not all men, are going tohave to deal with, especially as we
age. What is it about theprostate that leads it to be maybe a
rude cause of things that could beas inconvenient as having to get up and
go to the bathroom multiple times anight. Yeah, some of that has
to do with the anatomy of wherethe prostates located and it's very important in
(06:13):
reproduction and sexual health, but aswe age, it becomes less important,
and unfortunately, instead of shrinking andgoing away, it tends to grow and
get bigger, and because of whereit's located, it blocks some of the
urine flow and it makes it moreinconvenient. So it's just staying on top
of that being aware that this isjust a normal part of aging. I
think one of the most important thingswe can do for men as colleagues,
(06:39):
friends, co workers is to normalizea lot of these things and say this
is just a part of who weare, of what it means to grow
older as a man, and totake care of yourself and make sure that
those problems don't become a bigger concern. I have a colleague of mine who
calls himself the flow max Police,and he's very much a proponent for it
(07:00):
and has started to talk to othersin our office of my age to say,
are you getting screened? Are youtaking care of it? There is
something that can help you should youneed it. He's being proactive and it
is very important. It goes backto what we started to talk about,
is that many conversations like this don'thappen, and you don't want to minimize
(07:20):
the conversation, but maybe sometimes bringinga little humor in would get someone too
and want to engage in that conversation. That's correct. I think that we
relate to one another one on oneand in small groups so importantly, and
men emphasizing preventative care, emphasizing justhealthy lifestyles, emphasizing doing things to put
(07:46):
off or avoid potential health concerns canbe really critical. I have been someone
who is intimately familiar with our nexttop, we're going to talk about colon
cancer. I hope not the anomaly, but I have paid more attention to
my family history and know that thereis a family history. I started getting
(08:07):
screenings at age forty because of that, and I have been successful in finding
polyps and treating them as I've goneevery five years for regular checkouts. But
let's talk about is colon cancer gettingmore front and center? But both men
and women, I believe so.I believe that it's becoming a growing concern.
(08:31):
We see statistics that show us thatthere's been an increase of colon cancer,
especially for men and women aged fortyto forty nine, and partly as
a result of that in twenty sixteen, the United States Preventative Task Force,
which gives screening recommendations, has loweredthe age of screening from fifty to forty
(08:52):
five. And if, as youmentioned, there's a family history of colon
cancer, you started earlier. AndI can use myself as an example,
my father died of colon cancer atthe age of seventy. If it had
been caught earlier, and this isone of the real success stories in healthcare.
If you catch it early, getthose polyps out, find an early
(09:15):
cancer, exercise that cancer, youcan cure it, and you can go
on and live a long, healthylife. But my father, unfortunately died
at age seventy of cancer, andso I started screening early, very early
on. And my son, who'sjust turned thirty, we had him screen
at the age of thirty. Soit's really critical to know your family history
(09:37):
to get that screening done, toknow that there are a number of different
ways, including stool tests, kolonoscopies, and other things that can pick up
those cancers early and find them ata curative stage where you can really save
a life. I want to talkabout a couple other things as well before
we go back to those things thatmight event someone or be a barrier for
(10:01):
those very important screenings. But Iwant to talk about a couple of other
things that definitely impact man. Heartdisease definitely one of them. Another thing
that I watch. I've had hypertensionfor years. It is a family issue.
I've been watching. I've been watchingthat as well. I would suspect
though, that for some would qualifyin the candidate of us. I'll take
(10:22):
care of it later, I'll pushit off. I won't if I don't
know my numbers. They can't hurtme. Right. That's an excellent point,
Joe, because I think men inparticular tend to like to tough things
out and to push things off.When it comes to health. They like
to think of themselves as more healthythan their female counterparts, or in better
(10:43):
shape than other guys. So theyreally push that away. And when we
talk about heart disease, that isthe number one killer. I think a
lot of education has gone into heartdisease over the last ten or twenty years.
This was a while ago, butI remember a friend telling me a
story of her dad sitting at homein his easy chair with chest pain that
(11:07):
just kept getting worse and worse andworse, and her mom tried to get
him and go get it taken careof, and he eventually did, but
it was too late. So heartdisease is one of those things at number
one, we can pick up andprevent earlier. And number two, should
you start feeling any of those symptoms, it should be something that you take
(11:28):
care of right away. Heart diseaseis the number one killer. But like
you said, with hypertension, highcholesterol, some of those things that can
lead to heart disease, if weget a handle on those early on,
we can really prevent the long termconsequences. And that goes right into our
next top at cholesterol levels and diabetes. And I think we're starting to see
(11:50):
perhaps a lot more widespread especially inthe diabetes category, maybe not necessarily more
people having it, hopefully more peopleare getting screened, as we seem to
see maybe some more education coming inat least in a couple of a couple
of these issues here, these twoincluded, I think you're both of those
things are actually two true. Ithink that people are more aware of the
(12:13):
disease, and thus both physicians andother healthcare providers are screening for it earlier.
But I think also due to lifestyleissues, it is becoming more prevalent,
and as a result, we're seeinggrowing numbers of the population with diabetes.
Those numbers what you mentioned, thediabetic numbers, and I'll talk about
(12:35):
the hemoglobin A one C, whichis a measure of where your sugar has
been for three months. That's anumber every American above the age of twenty
five thirty should know. And alsoyour cholesterol levels, your good and bad
cholesterol levels. Pretty much everyone shouldknow those because if we find that those
(12:56):
are out of whack early on,there are a number of medications, treatment,
lifestyle changes that we'll talk about laterthat can go so far to controlling
and even almost to the ascent Iwouldn't say curing, but making it more
of a secondary issue. Doctor MarkBrown is our guests on the Community check
(13:18):
In, a board certified family physicianwith over three decades of experience in primary
care and community outreach, and medicaldirector at Excelis Blue Cross, Blue Shield.
We're talking to guys about guys thisweek on the Community check In.
So this goes back to something thatwe talked about just a moment ago.
What are the barriers in your estimationthere's all of these tests, there's all
of this diagnostic availability. If youknow your numbers, you can do something
(13:39):
about it. What keeps men fromgetting those recommended screenings having good relationships with
a primary care physician. That's reallycritical. And we are talking to men
here, this is the month ofFather's Day. We're thinking about those that
were related to. Guys in particularhave a shorter lifespan. As we said
(14:03):
earlier, they live five to sevenyears less than their female counterparts. And
in order to get past that,we need to really grasp what it means
to be healthy. According to HarvardHealth, men pay much less attention to
their health than women do and moreand they're more apt to skip the preventative
(14:26):
health screenings that we are mentioning areso important than other men and women.
So men have this mindset of againtoughening it, toughing it out, you
know, stiff upper lip, tryingto push through and stay strong and all
that, and they don't take timeoff of work, they tend to pay
more attention to other responsibilities, andthey're less likely to go in for that
(14:50):
preventative healthcare. So I think oneof my number one messages is that healthcare
wants to make it known that weare open and available to men to come
in for those screenings, to makethose appointments, to get taken care of.
One of the things that's kind ofscary for men is because compared to
women, who are more likely totake kids in for healthcare checkups, more
(15:13):
likely to take older parents in tobe seen by the doctor, have have
to go in for childbearing and obgynkind of care. So women sort of
get this familiarity with the health systemthat men often don't get, and as
a result, they with anything you'renot comfortable with, you're less likely to
engage. And because men don't engagethe system as early or as often,
(15:41):
like we said before, they tendto present with diseases in a later state,
or go undiagnosed and untreated and sufferthe consequences for that. So it's
important that as a physician with thirtyyears of experience, having talked to men
through these difficult stages, that youwant to engage your primary care provider.
(16:03):
You want to know who he orshe is. You want to have them
on speed dial if necessary, youwant to be able to call them if
anything goes wrong, because they're theones that are going to be the gatekeepers.
They're going to direct you in theright way. Well, that's something
you should definitely be concerned about.Or no, that's something that actually is
quite normal and you don't need tolose any sleep about. So it's that
(16:26):
give and take, that important interactionthat is important to any man who wants
to stay healthy. Now, Ialso want to talk about your community engagement
and community outreach work. There arebarriers, and it's not just between men
and women in different communities within withinour area. It's there are disparities that
(16:48):
can play a significant role in howmen have access to and take advantage of
healthcare relationships. That's such an importantpoint to bring, Joe, and I
appreciate your mentioning that as a primarycare position. As a physician, one
of the few primary care physicians ofAfrican American descent in the area, it's
(17:11):
been so important to me not justto speak one on one, although that's
critical to my patients in the examroom, but to get out into the
community and let it be known thathealthcare is available for one and all,
because that access to healthcare is reallya challenge, and particularly for black men.
I'd say, just like white women, black women are more likely to
(17:33):
feel comfortable in the healthcare system.They have challenges as well, but particularly
for black men, I want toemphasize that it's critical for them to get
involved in their healthcare earlier on becausethe Kaisi Family Foundation has found the people
of color are more likely to facesocial and economic challenges to their care.
(17:53):
Where you live, where you work, where you play, where you eat,
all of those things are so important. We look at certain sections of
Rochester, for example, there arefood deserts. There's no access to supermarkets
to get that healthy kind of foodthat we'll talk about later that can keep
you in good health, and transportationis restricted. So healthcare disparities can be
(18:19):
your real challenge. And that's partof the reason we see the discrepancies in
lifespan and speaking directly to black men, and I had an opportunity to do
that just earlier this month. There'sa hunger out there. If you can
engage groups of men and your friendstake some of this information with you.
There's a hunger out there to learnand to know, and it's important because
(18:42):
not everything you hear is going tobe reliable, so you want to pass
on the best information. And beforewe run out of time here because we
are coming down toward the end ofour program today, I do want to
talk then about, you know,pulling out just what you just talked about
a moment ago. Is these stepsthat can help men maintain their health as
(19:02):
they age. And these are thingsthat you don't say, well, I'm
gonna wait till I'm a senior.I don't have to worry about it now,
I'm too young to worry about it. And these are things that can
be practically employed at any time oflife by any guy. Very important.
I mean as a physician, Isaw my role not so much as telling
(19:22):
people what to do and you know, imposing what was important on them.
I saw my role as more ofa coach or a mentor. Because we're
all given this awesome responsibility to takecare of ourselves. This body that we
have is the only one we're goingto have for all of our lives.
(19:45):
And just like compound interest, anysmall thing you do to move towards positive
healthcare early on will pay off yearsdown the road. So sometimes we don't
see it right away, but it'sso important for men to really become the
masters of their own destiny, asit were, in terms of taking care
(20:07):
of them their own health. Regularexercise that's critical, making sure that that
is something that you do on aregular basis, not just going out and
being a weekend warrior once or twicea week where you can hurt yourself,
but five times a week thirty minutes, whether it's taking a walk, riding
your bike, going for a swim, jogging, whatever fits your time and
(20:30):
lifestyle. That's going to be soimportant. Healthy diet that's critical as well.
I really encourage men and all ofmy patients to look towards a plant
based diet that is more healthy fruits, vegetables, whole grains. You can
have meat, but try not tohave it more than once a week because
(20:52):
that's really going to impact your health. And staying away from too much alcohol,
smoking those unhealthy life ours is important. And finally, getting good sleep
and rest. The more I'm moreyears I've spent as a physician, the
more I realize that it's those simplethings that we do every day that have
the long term impact on our health. Getting seven to nine hours of sleep
(21:15):
critical very important in us taking careof ourselves and making those changes that taking
those preventative health steps can make adifference. I think that's an important point,
doctor, is that they don't haveto be grand steps. They don't
have to be very large steps.Something that might seem insignificant can yield some
(21:37):
incredible results when you allow that cumulativeeffect to actually take place. I want
to also let people know about theresources that are available, because sometimes maybe
we have a relationship with a doctor, maybe we don't, maybe we need
help finding one, maybe we needsomething else. Talk to us a little
bit about some of the resources thatare available within the community that anyone can
(21:57):
take advantage of. Excel Us BlueCross Blue Shield members, they can check
out our preventive healthcare coverage on ourmobile app or by visiting excel Us BCBS
dot com slash preventive Care. That'sexcel Us BCBS dot com slash preventive Care.
You've got to start talking with yourfamily doctor. If you don't have
(22:18):
one, go to your insurance company, get a family doctor, start speaking
with them. Bring that conversation tothe forefront. It can help you identify
what the most important place you canstart to focus your healthcare changes on are.
Right now, doctor Brown, I'mgonna give you the floor for our
final ninety seconds. Here, we'vedone a lot of talk. We've just
(22:41):
barely scratched the surface. But Iwant you to talk directly to someone who's
still thinking after hearing all of this. Yeah, that's great, but I'm
fine. Everything's gonna be fine.Even after hearing the facts, they're still
may be hesitant to do something.The ninety seconds is yours. Well,
I want to really speak to menbecause those are the folks that this program
(23:04):
is dedicated to. That if youtake care of yourself, that's going to
have a ripple effect on everybody inyour family, your friend group, at
work, because we notice and theseare the things that we talk about.
Like I'm an avid exerciser. Iget to the gym four or five times
(23:25):
a week. I walk on aregular basis, and that's something that I
automatically talk about. Are you takinga weightlifting class, are you doing some
yoga? Are you swimming? Andyou interact with your friends. I've got
an appointment with my primary care physiciannext week. I'm going to talk to
my family and friends about that.We've got to take care of ourselves and
(23:47):
we become the best walking advertisement forgood health. If that's something that we
infest time and energy in and whenyou feel that you have an investment,
you will want to share those stories. You will want to get others invested
in the process as well. Soif you're there, you can bring other
people with you, because that mightjust be the exact push, the exact
(24:08):
thing that they need to hear thatgets them perhaps to get that screening in
time, start that relationship, beginthat conversation. Doctor Mark Brown is a
Board certified family physician over thirty yearsof experience caring for this community. He's
also a medical director with Excellis BlueCross Blue Shield. We've only really begun
the conversation, but doctor Brown onbehalf of all the guys in the audience.
(24:30):
We are very grateful that we hadyou here today, So glad to
be with you. Joe, appreciateyour time, Thanks for joining us on
Community check In, a presentation ofExcellis Blue Cross Blue Shield at iHeartRadio.
Podcasts of Community check In are availableon the iHeartRadio app or wherever you find
your favorite audio content. For moreways to stay safe, healthy, and
(24:52):
educated, visit Excelis BCBS dot comand follow on Instagram and Facebook.
Welcome to excel Us Blue Cross BlueShields Community check In. Each week,
we cover a specific topic featuring excelUs Blue Cross Blue Shield experts. You'll
get to know our team as wediscuss the latest in healthcare, health education,
and community health. Find us atexcel Us BCBS dot com and follow
(00:25):
on Instagram and Facebook. I'm Joelomonico, and welcome to this week's check in.
When men get together, I wouldsuspect it's a good bet that we
don't talk about health unless it's rememberthat time I did something a bit far
afield and got injured, or hey, let me show you this carpentery close
(00:45):
call that I had. But otherthan that. According to a twenty sixteen
national survey by the Cleveland Clinic,it confirms what you may be suspecting.
Men don't talk about their health withone another, and according to that survey,
just over half fifty three percent ofmen said that health isn't something that
they talk about. They're more likelyto discuss current events at thirty six percent,
(01:07):
sports at thirty two percent, jobat thirty two percent, and then
their health at just seven percent,and having discussions about it with their male
friends. So I am going totake this one for you, gentlemen,
and I'm going to handle well mostof the talking anyways. The rest of
it will be done by our guest, doctor Mark Brown, a Board certified
family physician with over thirty years ofexperience in primary care and community outreach,
(01:30):
and is a medical director at ExcellisBlue Cross, Blue Shield. Doctor Brown,
Welcome to the community check in.Thank you Joe, glad to be
here. Let's just start off byreally identifying why do you believe and why
is it so important for men todiscuss their health with their peer group with
other men. Well, it's importantto note that many diseases don't have a
(01:55):
lot of symptoms, and we needto gust those as men amongst one another
so that we can learn and growfrom each other. Also, data shows
that men don't live as long aswomen. Women's average life expectancy is up
to eighty years, whereas for menit's just seventy five years. And looking
deeper into some of that data,amongst black men, their life expectancy is
(02:20):
only sixty eight years, so that'sabout seven years shorter than their counterparts.
So there's a lot of good reasonsto discuss health and to educate one another
as we interact, because you canlearn from each other preventative screenings that are
important to catch health issues early on, and also just learning how to navigate
the healthcare system. And men canlearn that from one another because we can
(02:43):
recommend good doctors to each other andgood ways to take care of ourselves.
I think maybe I think you mightagree that maybe we need to just get
over ourselves a little bit and toknow that we can have these conversations and
we can be vulnerable with each otherand have these conversations and it doesn't diminish
(03:04):
anything, and in fact, itonly helps. It can really help those
men in our peer group to say, you know, they maybe can they
may have felt something or thought something, and maybe get them to make those
next steps very important. I thinkthe key word that I pick up on
there is vulnerability. We've heard alot more about that lately, and men
are more likely to try to hidelimit deal with at a later point healthcare
(03:34):
issues. If something hurts, ifsomething doesn't feel right, they tend to
put it off more than women do. Yeah, so let's talk about some
health issues that are unique to menand that are more likely to affect them
and let's start. Let's start rightwith the big one, prostate and prostate
cancer, and let's talk a littlebit about that. Because this is something
(03:57):
it gets a profile, it hasa month, but yet it's still one
of these things that winds up notbeing talked about or maybe hushed talked about.
Yes, I think probably because ofthe role the prostate lays. It's
not as well known as say somethinglike breast cancer. But it's very important
for men to realize that prostate healthis essential. If we live long enough,
(04:20):
almost all men are going to encountersome kind of an issue with their
prostate, whether it's getting up togo to the bathroom a few times at
night, all the way to prostatecancer. So when you have some of
those symptoms, they definitely should bechecked out. But even before you develop
those symptoms, in terms of prostatehealth, it's important to realize that there
(04:40):
are screening tests and exams that canbe done to prevent or find cancer early
on. So men are sometimes reluctantto go to their physicians to get checked
out because the prostate often involves arectal exam. But trust me, it's
so much more important that we getthat screening done early and make sure that
(05:03):
there is no problem. For example, I can tell you of a cousin
of mine who was diagnosed with prostatecancer at the age of thirty five.
Now that's not common, but weneed to get the screening done, especially
if we're at risks because he hada parent, a father who died at
the age of fifty five of prostatecancer. So there's obviously some genetic link
(05:28):
there, and for a small percentagesof these cancers, if it runs in
the family, that's one of thosethings that should get checked out. A
few questions on that, if Imay, because I'm a man of a
certain age. I'm fifty three yearsold this year, so I've been regularly
screened for prostate issues as we goon, Just from a medical standpoint,
why is it that this is oneof those things that most men, if
(05:51):
not all men, are going tohave to deal with, especially as we
age. What is it about theprostate that leads it to be maybe a
rude cause of things that could beas inconvenient as having to get up and
go to the bathroom multiple times anight. Yeah, some of that has
to do with the anatomy of wherethe prostates located and it's very important in
(06:13):
reproduction and sexual health, but aswe age, it becomes less important,
and unfortunately, instead of shrinking andgoing away, it tends to grow and
get bigger, and because of whereit's located, it blocks some of the
urine flow and it makes it moreinconvenient. So it's just staying on top
of that being aware that this isjust a normal part of aging. I
think one of the most important thingswe can do for men as colleagues,
(06:39):
friends, co workers is to normalizea lot of these things and say this
is just a part of who weare, of what it means to grow
older as a man, and totake care of yourself and make sure that
those problems don't become a bigger concern. I have a colleague of mine who
calls himself the flow max Police,and he's very much a proponent for it
(07:00):
and has started to talk to othersin our office of my age to say,
are you getting screened? Are youtaking care of it? There is
something that can help you should youneed it. He's being proactive and it
is very important. It goes backto what we started to talk about,
is that many conversations like this don'thappen, and you don't want to minimize
(07:20):
the conversation, but maybe sometimes bringinga little humor in would get someone too
and want to engage in that conversation. That's correct. I think that we
relate to one another one on oneand in small groups so importantly, and
men emphasizing preventative care, emphasizing justhealthy lifestyles, emphasizing doing things to put
(07:46):
off or avoid potential health concerns canbe really critical. I have been someone
who is intimately familiar with our nexttop, we're going to talk about colon
cancer. I hope not the anomaly, but I have paid more attention to
my family history and know that thereis a family history. I started getting
(08:07):
screenings at age forty because of that, and I have been successful in finding
polyps and treating them as I've goneevery five years for regular checkouts. But
let's talk about is colon cancer gettingmore front and center? But both men
and women, I believe so.I believe that it's becoming a growing concern.
(08:31):
We see statistics that show us thatthere's been an increase of colon cancer,
especially for men and women aged fortyto forty nine, and partly as
a result of that in twenty sixteen, the United States Preventative Task Force,
which gives screening recommendations, has loweredthe age of screening from fifty to forty
(08:52):
five. And if, as youmentioned, there's a family history of colon
cancer, you started earlier. AndI can use myself as an example,
my father died of colon cancer atthe age of seventy. If it had
been caught earlier, and this isone of the real success stories in healthcare.
If you catch it early, getthose polyps out, find an early
(09:15):
cancer, exercise that cancer, youcan cure it, and you can go
on and live a long, healthylife. But my father, unfortunately died
at age seventy of cancer, andso I started screening early, very early
on. And my son, who'sjust turned thirty, we had him screen
at the age of thirty. Soit's really critical to know your family history
(09:37):
to get that screening done, toknow that there are a number of different
ways, including stool tests, kolonoscopies, and other things that can pick up
those cancers early and find them ata curative stage where you can really save
a life. I want to talkabout a couple other things as well before
we go back to those things thatmight event someone or be a barrier for
(10:01):
those very important screenings. But Iwant to talk about a couple of other
things that definitely impact man. Heartdisease definitely one of them. Another thing
that I watch. I've had hypertensionfor years. It is a family issue.
I've been watching. I've been watchingthat as well. I would suspect
though, that for some would qualifyin the candidate of us. I'll take
(10:22):
care of it later, I'll pushit off. I won't if I don't
know my numbers. They can't hurtme. Right. That's an excellent point,
Joe, because I think men inparticular tend to like to tough things
out and to push things off.When it comes to health. They like
to think of themselves as more healthythan their female counterparts, or in better
(10:43):
shape than other guys. So theyreally push that away. And when we
talk about heart disease, that isthe number one killer. I think a
lot of education has gone into heartdisease over the last ten or twenty years.
This was a while ago, butI remember a friend telling me a
story of her dad sitting at homein his easy chair with chest pain that
(11:07):
just kept getting worse and worse andworse, and her mom tried to get
him and go get it taken careof, and he eventually did, but
it was too late. So heartdisease is one of those things at number
one, we can pick up andprevent earlier. And number two, should
you start feeling any of those symptoms, it should be something that you take
(11:28):
care of right away. Heart diseaseis the number one killer. But like
you said, with hypertension, highcholesterol, some of those things that can
lead to heart disease, if weget a handle on those early on,
we can really prevent the long termconsequences. And that goes right into our
next top at cholesterol levels and diabetes. And I think we're starting to see
(11:50):
perhaps a lot more widespread especially inthe diabetes category, maybe not necessarily more
people having it, hopefully more peopleare getting screened, as we seem to
see maybe some more education coming inat least in a couple of a couple
of these issues here, these twoincluded, I think you're both of those
things are actually two true. Ithink that people are more aware of the
(12:13):
disease, and thus both physicians andother healthcare providers are screening for it earlier.
But I think also due to lifestyleissues, it is becoming more prevalent,
and as a result, we're seeinggrowing numbers of the population with diabetes.
Those numbers what you mentioned, thediabetic numbers, and I'll talk about
(12:35):
the hemoglobin A one C, whichis a measure of where your sugar has
been for three months. That's anumber every American above the age of twenty
five thirty should know. And alsoyour cholesterol levels, your good and bad
cholesterol levels. Pretty much everyone shouldknow those because if we find that those
(12:56):
are out of whack early on,there are a number of medications, treatment,
lifestyle changes that we'll talk about laterthat can go so far to controlling
and even almost to the ascent Iwouldn't say curing, but making it more
of a secondary issue. Doctor MarkBrown is our guests on the Community check
(13:18):
In, a board certified family physicianwith over three decades of experience in primary
care and community outreach, and medicaldirector at Excelis Blue Cross, Blue Shield.
We're talking to guys about guys thisweek on the Community check In.
So this goes back to something thatwe talked about just a moment ago.
What are the barriers in your estimationthere's all of these tests, there's all
of this diagnostic availability. If youknow your numbers, you can do something
(13:39):
about it. What keeps men fromgetting those recommended screenings having good relationships with
a primary care physician. That's reallycritical. And we are talking to men
here, this is the month ofFather's Day. We're thinking about those that
were related to. Guys in particularhave a shorter lifespan. As we said
(14:03):
earlier, they live five to sevenyears less than their female counterparts. And
in order to get past that,we need to really grasp what it means
to be healthy. According to HarvardHealth, men pay much less attention to
their health than women do and moreand they're more apt to skip the preventative
(14:26):
health screenings that we are mentioning areso important than other men and women.
So men have this mindset of againtoughening it, toughing it out, you
know, stiff upper lip, tryingto push through and stay strong and all
that, and they don't take timeoff of work, they tend to pay
more attention to other responsibilities, andthey're less likely to go in for that
(14:50):
preventative healthcare. So I think oneof my number one messages is that healthcare
wants to make it known that weare open and available to men to come
in for those screenings, to makethose appointments, to get taken care of.
One of the things that's kind ofscary for men is because compared to
women, who are more likely totake kids in for healthcare checkups, more
(15:13):
likely to take older parents in tobe seen by the doctor, have have
to go in for childbearing and obgynkind of care. So women sort of
get this familiarity with the health systemthat men often don't get, and as
a result, they with anything you'renot comfortable with, you're less likely to
engage. And because men don't engagethe system as early or as often,
(15:41):
like we said before, they tendto present with diseases in a later state,
or go undiagnosed and untreated and sufferthe consequences for that. So it's
important that as a physician with thirtyyears of experience, having talked to men
through these difficult stages, that youwant to engage your primary care provider.
(16:03):
You want to know who he orshe is. You want to have them
on speed dial if necessary, youwant to be able to call them if
anything goes wrong, because they're theones that are going to be the gatekeepers.
They're going to direct you in theright way. Well, that's something
you should definitely be concerned about.Or no, that's something that actually is
quite normal and you don't need tolose any sleep about. So it's that
(16:26):
give and take, that important interactionthat is important to any man who wants
to stay healthy. Now, Ialso want to talk about your community engagement
and community outreach work. There arebarriers, and it's not just between men
and women in different communities within withinour area. It's there are disparities that
(16:48):
can play a significant role in howmen have access to and take advantage of
healthcare relationships. That's such an importantpoint to bring, Joe, and I
appreciate your mentioning that as a primarycare position. As a physician, one
of the few primary care physicians ofAfrican American descent in the area, it's
(17:11):
been so important to me not justto speak one on one, although that's
critical to my patients in the examroom, but to get out into the
community and let it be known thathealthcare is available for one and all,
because that access to healthcare is reallya challenge, and particularly for black men.
I'd say, just like white women, black women are more likely to
(17:33):
feel comfortable in the healthcare system.They have challenges as well, but particularly
for black men, I want toemphasize that it's critical for them to get
involved in their healthcare earlier on becausethe Kaisi Family Foundation has found the people
of color are more likely to facesocial and economic challenges to their care.
(17:53):
Where you live, where you work, where you play, where you eat,
all of those things are so important. We look at certain sections of
Rochester, for example, there arefood deserts. There's no access to supermarkets
to get that healthy kind of foodthat we'll talk about later that can keep
you in good health, and transportationis restricted. So healthcare disparities can be
(18:19):
your real challenge. And that's partof the reason we see the discrepancies in
lifespan and speaking directly to black men, and I had an opportunity to do
that just earlier this month. There'sa hunger out there. If you can
engage groups of men and your friendstake some of this information with you.
There's a hunger out there to learnand to know, and it's important because
(18:42):
not everything you hear is going tobe reliable, so you want to pass
on the best information. And beforewe run out of time here because we
are coming down toward the end ofour program today, I do want to
talk then about, you know,pulling out just what you just talked about
a moment ago. Is these stepsthat can help men maintain their health as
(19:02):
they age. And these are thingsthat you don't say, well, I'm
gonna wait till I'm a senior.I don't have to worry about it now,
I'm too young to worry about it. And these are things that can
be practically employed at any time oflife by any guy. Very important.
I mean as a physician, Isaw my role not so much as telling
(19:22):
people what to do and you know, imposing what was important on them.
I saw my role as more ofa coach or a mentor. Because we're
all given this awesome responsibility to takecare of ourselves. This body that we
have is the only one we're goingto have for all of our lives.
(19:45):
And just like compound interest, anysmall thing you do to move towards positive
healthcare early on will pay off yearsdown the road. So sometimes we don't
see it right away, but it'sso important for men to really become the
masters of their own destiny, asit were, in terms of taking care
(20:07):
of them their own health. Regularexercise that's critical, making sure that that
is something that you do on aregular basis, not just going out and
being a weekend warrior once or twicea week where you can hurt yourself,
but five times a week thirty minutes, whether it's taking a walk, riding
your bike, going for a swim, jogging, whatever fits your time and
(20:30):
lifestyle. That's going to be soimportant. Healthy diet that's critical as well.
I really encourage men and all ofmy patients to look towards a plant
based diet that is more healthy fruits, vegetables, whole grains. You can
have meat, but try not tohave it more than once a week because
(20:52):
that's really going to impact your health. And staying away from too much alcohol,
smoking those unhealthy life ours is important. And finally, getting good sleep
and rest. The more I'm moreyears I've spent as a physician, the
more I realize that it's those simplethings that we do every day that have
the long term impact on our health. Getting seven to nine hours of sleep
(21:15):
critical very important in us taking careof ourselves and making those changes that taking
those preventative health steps can make adifference. I think that's an important point,
doctor, is that they don't haveto be grand steps. They don't
have to be very large steps.Something that might seem insignificant can yield some
(21:37):
incredible results when you allow that cumulativeeffect to actually take place. I want
to also let people know about theresources that are available, because sometimes maybe
we have a relationship with a doctor, maybe we don't, maybe we need
help finding one, maybe we needsomething else. Talk to us a little
bit about some of the resources thatare available within the community that anyone can
(21:57):
take advantage of. Excel Us BlueCross Blue Shield members, they can check
out our preventive healthcare coverage on ourmobile app or by visiting excel Us BCBS
dot com slash preventive Care. That'sexcel Us BCBS dot com slash preventive Care.
You've got to start talking with yourfamily doctor. If you don't have
(22:18):
one, go to your insurance company, get a family doctor, start speaking
with them. Bring that conversation tothe forefront. It can help you identify
what the most important place you canstart to focus your healthcare changes on are.
Right now, doctor Brown, I'mgonna give you the floor for our
final ninety seconds. Here, we'vedone a lot of talk. We've just
(22:41):
barely scratched the surface. But Iwant you to talk directly to someone who's
still thinking after hearing all of this. Yeah, that's great, but I'm
fine. Everything's gonna be fine.Even after hearing the facts, they're still
may be hesitant to do something.The ninety seconds is yours. Well,
I want to really speak to menbecause those are the folks that this program
(23:04):
is dedicated to. That if youtake care of yourself, that's going to
have a ripple effect on everybody inyour family, your friend group, at
work, because we notice and theseare the things that we talk about.
Like I'm an avid exerciser. Iget to the gym four or five times
(23:25):
a week. I walk on aregular basis, and that's something that I
automatically talk about. Are you takinga weightlifting class, are you doing some
yoga? Are you swimming? Andyou interact with your friends. I've got
an appointment with my primary care physiciannext week. I'm going to talk to
my family and friends about that.We've got to take care of ourselves and
(23:47):
we become the best walking advertisement forgood health. If that's something that we
infest time and energy in and whenyou feel that you have an investment,
you will want to share those stories. You will want to get others invested
in the process as well. Soif you're there, you can bring other
people with you, because that mightjust be the exact push, the exact
(24:08):
thing that they need to hear thatgets them perhaps to get that screening in
time, start that relationship, beginthat conversation. Doctor Mark Brown is a
Board certified family physician over thirty yearsof experience caring for this community. He's
also a medical director with Excellis BlueCross Blue Shield. We've only really begun
the conversation, but doctor Brown onbehalf of all the guys in the audience.
(24:30):
We are very grateful that we hadyou here today, So glad to
be with you. Joe, appreciateyour time, Thanks for joining us on
Community check In, a presentation ofExcellis Blue Cross Blue Shield at iHeartRadio.
Podcasts of Community check In are availableon the iHeartRadio app or wherever you find
your favorite audio content. For moreways to stay safe, healthy, and
(24:52):
educated, visit Excelis BCBS dot comand follow on Instagram and Facebook.
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