WHEN it comes to recapturing your youth, time is a one-way ride. Even though you cannot go home again, you can keep yourself from suffering from the more common age-related ailments. All it takes is a little common sense and self-care. And it is worth it. After all, life as a guy can be scary. Consider this:
•Prior to age 65, men suffer heart attacks almost four times the rate of women.
•By age 65, one in three men will suffer from high blood pressure.
•One out of every eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.
We face two challenges when it comes to caring our own health. First, there’s the macho ethic that tell us to suffer in silence, tune out pain and consider our bodies as nothing more than vehicles to get us from one place to another. That’s one reason women visit doctors about 150 percent as often as men. Then, there is the second challenge that men’s health somehow is not as important an issue as women’s. For example, how many times have you seen and read in women’s health magazine urging women to do breast self-exams and recommending regular or yearly mammograms? Ever seen or heard of a magazine or even
doctors telling young men about the importance of testicular self-exams? This despite the fact that testicular cancer is 95 percent curable if caught early.
We can start taking charge of our own lives by watching what we eat, cutting down on stress and getting more exercise. To help, I have compiled a brief man’s guide to healthy living providing you with the basics for staying young, active and productive for the long haul.
Eat better, live longer
When we were kids we selected our food based on two criteria: what we could trade it for at school and what cool prizes were shown on the back of the box. Today, eating has become a lot more complicated. It seems as though everyday a new danger is discovered. To cut through the confusion we have come up with simple, hard and fast rules for eating right. This basic overview should clue you in to whether your diet is the kind that will keep your engine of the body revitalized or lead you to the great
mechanic in the sky.
Cut the fat. High fat diets have been linked to a wide variety of male diseases: heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, to name a few. But many men are confused about dietary fat
because it comes in three different forms. Here’s a quick breakdown on each type and their relative merits.
•Saturated fat: This fat is bad for you.
•Polyunsaturated fat: This fat is bad too.
•Monounsaturated fat: Ditto
Most dietitians recommend a diet that is no more than 30 percent fat. (Most people eat about 40 percent of their total calories in fat.) Here are some tips on cutting your fat intake.
•Watch the add-on fat. Pastas, breads and vegetables are naturally low in fat but not when they are drenched in butter or sour cream. Look for butter toppings such as salsa, lemon juice or fat-free sour cream.
•Cut down on meats especially red meats. Skinless chicken and fish are lower fat alternatives.
•Try switching from whole milk dairy products to low-fat or fat-free versions. If you drink whole milk now, switch your way down to skim or non-fat.
•Adopt healthier cooking methods. Steaming, baking, grilling and microwaving are all better than frying, during which foods absorb oil.
Take your vitamins. A basic daily supplement shall give you 100 percent of the recommended allowances for the following nutrients: Beta-carotene or (vitamin A); the B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, B6 and B12); and vitamins C, D, E and K. In addition, it should contain 100 percent of what you need in the way of potassium, magnesium, selenium and zinc and at least 100 micrograms of chromium (but no more than the recommended limit of 200 micrograms), all of which are needed for a man’s good health. And even better supplement is one that is labelled “antioxidant rich”—in other words loaded with C and E and beta carotene. That’s because these three nutrients have been found to attack free radicals—loose oxygen molecules that hang around in the body and cause all kinds of damage from wrinkling your skin to weakening your immune system.
Fill up with fiber. In our grandparents’ time, fiber was called roughage. Since it is hard to sell say breakfast cereal with big banners that say “High in Roughage,” today we use the more
marketable, less graphic term “fiber.”
A high fiber diet fill you up without filling you out. Keeps your plumbing working order, helps lower your cholesterol level and may help reduce the risk of colon cancer. Nutritionist recommend you get at least 20 grams per day. How? Try starting out with a breakfast of oatmeal, whole wheat toast and two pieces of fruits. Other good sources include most vegetables, beans and whole grain, breads and pastas.
Don’t diet. Here’s what happens when you go on a diet. Your body senses danger. Instead, eat your meals frequently to keep your metabolism revving. Eat more complex carbohydrate rich vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes that will deliver you with rich vitamins and fibers. Don’t forget the principles of food combining. Eat your protein like chicken, fish, meat, pork with vegetables. Eat your carbohydrates with vegetables like our native sari-sari (okra, string beans, white gabi).
Slash stress from your life
Have you been a little tense lately? Join a health club or a fitness gym. Of all the health problems facing today, experts say that stress is priority one. Many feel depress and get sick. What can we do to eliminate stress? Nothing. It’s part of life. But while we can’t just make it disappear, we can take some major steps toward reducing the amount of stress in our daily lives. Here are some of the most successful anti-stress strategies around.
•Get sweaty. Scientific research shows that 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity like brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming, biking circuit weight training immediately reduces body tension and the more intense it is, the more effective it will be. Weight training exercisers found that weight training counters anxiety and depression and boost self-esteem.
•Stay in balance. Most of us know the importance of having a hobby or favorite activity to distract us from the demands of work. Don’t indulge in a hobby that is an extension from your work. Look for something completely removed from your business activities. Try something creative: painting, tinkering with an old car, making pottery, gardening, fishing or hiking.
•Ease your time crunch with a 20 percent solution. Expect everything you do to take 20 percent longer than you think it will. Time constraints have a hold of us, so don’t beat yourself over them. Take a hard look at what you have scheduled for the day and realize that unless you add another two hours to your workday you’re not going to be able to get it all done. Then reschedule accordingly.
• Find the meaning of life. Or at least the meaning of your life. One review of more than 60 studies of stress-busting tactics found that having a sense of purpose in life was the single most powerful way to gain peace of mind. It may come from religious
involvement in a church, feeding program for indigents. As for me I can find of my mind by means of waking up early in the morning (4:30 or 5:00) and having my quiet time with God. In this early morning when the surroundings is so quiet, you can
invite the Creator to come and sit with you and you can pour out your problems. The bottom line is to step back a bit from your day to day life, look at the big picture and realize that controlling your problems won’t necessarily solve them. Share your problem to our Maker and then you can find peace of mind and the real meaning of life.