Dr Bryan Betty: Men's health and the importance of a check up

Men’s Health Week took place in June. It's an important topic as men often consider themselves bullet proof, and think they don’t need to see the doctor. 

 

So why is men’s health important? 

There are some underlying statistics that are important to reflect on: 

- Overseas study: men are twice as likely never to have visited the doctor. Three times as likely not to have visited GP in 5 year period. 
- They die 3.5 years younger, on average, than women. 
- They develop heart disease 10 years younger than women. 
- They develop diabetes younger. 

It’s a concern! 

  

Why should they visit the GP? 

There are hidden risks that can affect health that you won’t know about until you have a regular ‘warrant of fitness’ check-up: 

Cholesterol: 

-Increases risk of heart disease. 
-Only detected through a blood test. 

Diabetes and blood sugar: 

-Need to be checked from age of 35. 
-Sugars can creep up men and damage the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. 
-Only detected through a blood test. 

Blood Pressure, the hidden killer: 

- Can feel perfectly OK with raised blood pressure. 
- Puts pressure on the heart leading to heart attacks and increases risk stroke. 
- Only detected through a blood pressure check. 

  

What other issues should men be concerned about? 

The prostate: 

- From the age of 50 should be seeing your doctor to discuss a prostate check. 
- Simple blood test and slightly uncomfortable rectal exam! 
- Early detection of prostate cancer leads to early cure! 

Bowel cancer:

- From the age of 60 
- Two yearly bowel cancer screening. 
- Early detection of bowel cancer leads to cure! 

In addition, if you have been about in the sun (especially farmers) a regular skin check for early signs of skin cancer is necessary. 

If you're feeling depressed, irritable, or stressed talking to your GP is a good first step to help. 

  

When should men we go for a check-up? 

- Definitely from the age of 50 yearly check-up is important. 
- Prior to that 2 to 5 years from the age of 30. 

With all these things early detection saves lives, and detecting problems early means major health issues can be reduced by early intervention with lifestyle, medication and occasionally specialist intervention. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talk z EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Quarter to eleven on News Talks EDB. Men's Health Week
was a couple of weeks ago in June, but we
want to talk about it now because men's health shouldn't
just be a week, it should be every single week.
And doctor Brian Betty is with us this morning. Kilder Brian,
why is men's health so important?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh? Look, I think there's some real underlying statistics that
are really important to reflect on. You know, there's big
studies overseas that show that men are twice as likely
as women never to have visited their doctor or GP,
that three times is likely not to have seen their
GP in the last five years. And in New Zealand,

(00:51):
men die three and a half years younger than woman.
They also developed things like heart disease ten years earlier,
they develop diabetes earlier. So they've got this cluster of
things that go on that are really really important and
it should be a concern that we think about. We
think about men's health and we think about do all
the time.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
So for the guys who are listening now, or people
who have guys in their life, who maybe have put
off that trip to the doctor for a little too long.
Why should they be visiting their GP.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Well, look, I think one of the big reasons. And
then it's this cluster of hidden health problems that can
start to develop over time early on, and if we
don't go to see our GP, if we don't go
to see our doctor, we won't know about them. And
early intervention is really really important. So there's three in
particular that are a great concern. One is cholesterol, So

(01:43):
if you don't get a blood test, if you don't
see your doctor, you don't know that you may have
a cholesterol problem. And cholesterols those fats that flow around
to the bloodstream and clog up heart vessels in particular
and can cause heart attacks. So I mentioned that men
have heart disease ten years earlier. That's one of the
reasons that occurs. So we need to check for that
quite regularly. The other one is sugars, which can lead

(02:06):
to diabetes. So when sugars start to go up in
the bloodstream, they can start to damage the heart, they
can start to damage the kidneys, they can start to
damage the nervous system. And the thing is we don't
know it's happening until we test it, so it's really
really important. And the third one is what's called the
silent killer, and that's blood pressure. So again unless we
test our blood pressure over time, we don't know it's

(02:28):
going up. And again that can lead to stroke, heart attacks,
and kidney damage. So these things are hidden. They're called
the silent hiss and unless we go we don't know
it's happening. And early is better than late.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And of course there are a couple
of other issues that men in particular should be concerned
about or aware of.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Well, probably the big one is the prostate. And again
from about the age of fifty onwards, I think you
do need to be going to your GP having a
chat about whether you should get a prostate examination, which
is basically a simple blood test and look as the
finger up the back passages everyone talks about to check
that the prostate's healthier normal size, because again early detection

(03:08):
of prostate problems leads to cure. If you leave it
till it's late, it's often too late, and that's the
problem we run into. The Other one that's just started
to happen is bowel screening. So you get a cat
through the mail every two years. It's a little pooh
sample you have to do. You send it away and
if there's little changes in that they can we can
then progress you to the specialist to examine the bewel

(03:30):
and look for any changes it may lead to bowel cancer.
So again it detects problems early. There's just a couple
of other ones that I think are worth mentioning. I
think skin checks, especially if you're in the country or
a farmer. I think once a year going to see
a GP for a skin check is really very important
for those early signs of skin cancer. And the other

(03:52):
big one which men are really reticent with is you know,
sort of if you're feeling down, if you're feeling anxious,
if you're feeling a bit depressed, often a good thing
to do is just look, go to your GP, go
to your doctor and have a chat about it, because
again we can do things about that.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Okay, a simple question, but maybe then maybe a bit so,
but how often should men go for a check out?
When should we be going?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Look? Really good question. Look, I think from the age
of fifty, I think you should be going once a year, right,
because what we know about cholesterol, sugars and blood pressure.
They tend to go up as we get older, so
I think you need to keep on top of that.
So yearly from the age of fifty and from about
the age of thirty, I think every two to five years,
depending on what's going on, is really really a wise
thing to do. So I think you know, with all

(04:39):
these things, early detection actually saves lives. It leads to
cure rather than leaving things late. So I think getting
into the habit of doing that from about the age
of thirty onwards, and certainly from the age of fifty
every year, I think you should be going and then
just having a chat and looking at what needs to
be done.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, that is just great advice. Thank you so much, Brian.
What we're going to do is we'll make sure we
clap up Brian there and we put them on the
newstorks hed Be website. If there's someone in your life
who you should be hearing Brian's message there but maybe
didn't or is a bit too proud, you can just
send them that little link and no one needs to
be any the wiser. Newstalkshib dot co dot mz is
the best place to go for that it is ten
to eleven, Non Newstalk's EDB.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live
to Newstalks EDB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio