This is Men’s Health Week. At first blush, that might be an odd thing to hold up.
It was started in 1994 by Senator Bob Dole and Congressman Bill Richardson to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems among men and boys.
Since then, men’s health is often a marketing phrase to get men to buy things related to sex, weight and muscles – which generally are not effective.
But after years of considering the concept, I am now a believer because men’s health is about family health.
Speaking as one myself, men are terrible about considering their health until something is broken. This means that treating hypertension, diabetes, smoking and obesity is often ignored until the disease is advanced. Getting men to understand that their health impacts their family’s well-being is vitally important.
Getting boys to understand that becoming a man has little to do with becoming strong as an individual, but far more with nurturing and being vulnerable to those you love. This is directly related to men’s health. That message must be repeated many times for it to be heard.
So this Men’s Health Week and Father’s Day, encourage the men and boys in your life to think about what being healthy means.
We must all remember that being healthy is not about the absence of disease but about living the life-well-lived. Doing that requires effort and needs loving family and friends around you in order to achieve the goal.
This is Dr. Scott Morris for Church Health.