Middle Aged and Overweight - heard that before...

CrankyGoatBC

Seeking a few fitness pal 'friends' to help support and motivate. Would like friendly support; dedication to your own personal goals and food diary; no exercise crazies or fitness gurus - just a few fellow middle aged married guys looking to get back in shape. Please friend me with message of where your at with your health / fitness goals.

Ask any family doctor and he or she will tell you: Until they cruise into their 40s, men are notorious for their disregard of their own health.

“Typically, men who come to see me in their 40s start with an apology,” says Dr. Kingsley Watts, a Toronto family physician. “They say they haven’t seen a doctor in 10 or 15 years and the reason they are here is because their wives made them come.”

Indeed, between ages 20 and 40, the main reason men visit doctors is for trauma, says Dr. Ross Upshur, a staff physician in the family practice at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

“When I see a man below the age of 40, it is usually because he has been doing something foolhardy,” he says. “He has been cycling without a helmet or has been driving without a seat belt or has fallen off a ladder.”

But at around age 45, all the bad habits and excesses of youth begin catching up with men.

Two decades of smoking, drinking to excess, chowing down on unhealthy diets and avoiding regular exercise now start to take their toll.

“Age 40 to 60 is when men finally begin to see the results of all those bad habits,” says Dr. Walter Owsianik, a Hamilton family doctor. “It is usually their wives or a serious illness or the death of a friend or relative that makes them realize they are not invulnerable and should start paying attention to their health.”

The first and most important step men can take in their 40s is to have a complete check-up with their family doctor, say all the doctors.
The goal is to set a baseline of overall health and then to start focusing on what can be done to reduce the chances of serious health problems in the future and start to manage effectively those that might have already taken root.

So what should men, at age 46, be concerned with? What health problems should be on their radar screens?

The list is long but there are elements that connect most of them. The conditions and diseases most likely to kill us or make us miserable, in large part, reflect lifestyle. Diets low in fruit and vegetables, too much weight around the middle, too little exercise, too little sleep and too much stress are the common threads running though all of them:

Change your lifestyle and you take control of your health, the doctors say.