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Drs John Coffin and David Acorn
Family Medical Practice
0844 477 3088

Keeping Healthy

Men's Health

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Men are an unhealthy lot- here are a few figures

  • A man born in the UK in 1997 is on average not likely to live to 75, women live about six years longer
  • If you are in a partly skilled or semi-skilled job you are lucky to reach 70
  • The average man can expect to be seriously or chronically ill for 15 years of his life, not much to look forward to!
  • 45% of men are medically overweight
  • 27% drink more than is good for their health
  • 41,000 men under 75 die each year from coronary heart disease
  • The suicide rate in men is increasing

Why is men's health so poor?

Too tough for our own good?

Men are brought up to believe they have to be strong, brave, and behave as if they are indestructible. This can make it hard to seek help when something goes wrong, and easier to take risks with health such as smoking, drinking hard, and maybe driving dangerously or engaging in unsafe sex.

"Boy's don't cry"

How many times did you hear this as a boy? It makes it difficult to own up to having problems when things get tough. Men don't like talking about their emotional problems, and are reluctant to see a doctor when they are struggling with life. 

Men are too busy?

Surgeries are open when men are at work. Men seem to be more busy and have less time for their health. Check out our surgery times , we have some early and late surgeries that you may be able to get to.

Too much testosterone!

It's a biological fact that being male means that the scales are weighed against you from birth as far as your metabolism is concerned. Your arteries are more likely to clog up because of your male biology. If you put on weight, it is round the waist, the worst place for your health's sake, because this is also associated with heart disease

What can you do about it?

  1. Look on the menu on the top left for information on how to look after your health, especially the sections on emotional well-being, exercise, smoking, and safer drinking. In addition there is a special section just for men.
  2. Find out your waist to hip ratio with our special calculator on this site. If it is more than 0.90 you are more at risk of heart disease, so try and lose weight. See the section on healthy eating.
  3. Get a free health check from our nurses.
  4. Check out your risk of a heart attack or stroke and see what you can do to reduce your risk on www.riskscore.org.uk
    See below for more information on using the risk calculator
  5. Lastly, "Dare to Care" about your health.

What can we do about it?

Checkups for men in the local pub, special well men clinics at the surgery, or free holidays on the NHS!  Please, let us know on the feedback page what you think would make it easier for men to look after their health better.

Notes on using the calculator

  • You will need to know your cholesterol, and your systolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure is the first of the two numbers of your blood pressure reading, for example if your blood pressure is 135/85, the systolic blood pressure is 135
  • You don't need to know your creatinine level to use the calculator.
  • If your doctor hasn't told you that you have left ventricular hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart), then assume you don't have it.
  • If you don't know your blood pressure or your cholesterol level, why don't you see one of our nurses for a check up.

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