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I have several bad habits. I’m a man, so I’m not alone in that. But I’m not talking about picking my nose or scratching myself in public. I’m talking about the habits that are potentially killing me, the habits that are potentially killing most men.
As a writer, I have worked closely with many rehab clinics, mental health charities and alternative health clinics. I’ve noticed that there are more men opening up about their issues than ever before and while that seems to be mainly down to an increased willingness to discuss problems openly, there are also a few alarming trends causing issues.
Binge Drinking
According to a report by the CDC more than 1 in 5 men binge drink regularly and are more than twice as likely to binge drink than women. Only 10% of these binge drinkers admit to being alcoholics (about 4.5% of the male population), but even if you’re not an alcoholic, you’re still doing serious harm.
Men are twice as likely to be involved in a motor traffic accident involving alcohol. They are also more likely to display severe aggression, to take risks and basically to end up doing something stupid while drunk. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had injuries because of a binge drinking session and we’ve all done something stupid.
We survive relatively unharmed, but it’s just a matter of time before it catches up with us. Nearly 90,000 people die from alcohol abuse every year in the United States. The demon drink is responsible for as many as 10% of deaths in adults between the age of 20 and 64, also known as far too young to die!
It’s killing your liver; it’s increasing your risk of several forms of cancer; it’s damaging your mental health. So, drink responsibly, or you might not live to regret it.
Looking Good
There was a time when the average man was hairy and had a beer belly. The only men who spent a lot of time at the gym were sportsmen and bodybuilders. That changed, thankfully. However, many men have now gone to the other extreme. They have taken something that should be healthy and have pushed it to a point where it no longer is.
According to an official study conducted on British men, men are more obsessed with body image than women. The problem is, they are more likely to hide their issues or for society to not think of them as issues.
Men are injecting themselves with dangerous chemicals to get a tan. They are pushing themselves too far in the gym and they are taking dangerous, often untested supplements.
And that’s before I even get onto the excessive amount of protein powders being consumed by many modern men, with experts saying they do “more harm than good” and with links to kidney damage.
Gaming
If excessive exercise and dieting is one extreme, then spending hours in front of the TV playing games is another—really dangerous—one. We have always known that it’s not healthy to live a sedentary lifestyle, but new studies are suggesting that it could be worst than first thought. In fact, some experts believe that it could be as bad as obesity and as smoking and drinking—which doesn’t bode well if you’re an alcoholic, overweight gamer who likes an occasional smoke!
If you look at the studies being done on standing vs. sitting you begin to see just how much damage the simple act of sitting down could be doing to you.
Gaming addictions have become more common with the advent of eSports. Gamers are being lured into these unhealthy, sedentary careers with promises of fame and fortune, and it is feeding the epidemic of obesity and ill-health.
It’s not just gaming, either. Health care professionals the world over now officially recognize internet addiction as a real thing, and one that is on the rise. One in every 8 Americans suffers from it and all of them are spending far too long sitting down, depriving their bodies of exercise.
Medications
As someone who has to read all recent health news for my job, I’ve discovered some scary stories in recent years. Most of these I ignore, even when they strike a chord. The truth is, for every “XYC is poison story” there is an “XYC can extend your life!” story that soon follows. However, there are a few that have stuck recently and they concern medications that many modern men are using.
You may have heard the issues about statins. Once hailed as a drug that all men of a certain age could benefit from, they are now thought to raise the risk of diabetes by as much as 50%!
And then you have the worst offender: Proton Pump Inhibitors. I have been using these for many years so I was in for a shock when I read the news and I’m sure many others will be the same. These seemingly inoffensive meds are used for acid reflux, also known as GERD. They are bought over the counter and are widely prescribed, but new studies have linked them with many forms of cancer, heart disease, and other serious issues.
One alarming study found that 10% of all people had died within a year of being prescribed these drugs, and that the average lifespan was significantly reduced in anyone taking them.
It is still too early to say anything definitively. But when you add this news to previous warnings about these drugs, it’s worrying. Even more so when you consider that common drugs like Propecia, which is used to treat male pattern baldness, has generated many drug litigation cases because it has triggered so many life-altering side effects. Even though, like PPIs, it is a legal, widely available treatment.
It seems like when we’re not trying to kill ourselves, everyone else is trying to beat us to it.
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Thank you for bringing up Proton Pump Inhibitors. People don’t understand the dangers in taking these heartburn drugs. Get off PPIs if you can (http://howtotreatheartburn.com/how-to-wean-off-ppis-and-why/). They are linked to heart disease, chronic kidney disease, pneumonia, bacterial infections, osteoporosis, increased risk of Barrett’s esophagus which can lead to esophageal cancer, and recently Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News wrote of a study that links PPIs to pancreatic cancer.