By Broderick Johnson, White House, and Armin Brott, Men’s Health Network As men, we don’t always prioritize our health the way we should. So many other responsibilities seem to come first, such as work, family, or making sure our friends and co-workers can count on us. Those things are immensely important, no question. But too often, we...Continue reading
Category: Advocacy
Pulling Specialists Together to Improve Lung Cancer Care
During November, Lung Cancer Awareness Month, I’d like to share with you an example of how patient and caregiver engagement in clinical research can contribute to improving our knowledge of how best to care for patients with lung cancer. This example starts with the story of Mark Ill, a 68-year-old former owner of an air...Continue reading
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Silent Killers
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms or AAA, (pronounced “triple A”), are a silent killer. They evolve slowly over many years, offering no symptoms and no pain. They begins as a small dilation in the lower portion of the aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel, usually in the area just below the kidneys. Over years, they will continue...Continue reading
Are Urologists Losing It?
Let me get this straight. Twenty-five years ago, Urologists popularized a blood test for the early detection of a silent but very common and deadly cancer. With this tool in hand, called the PSA test, hundreds of millions of men have been screened worldwide since, changing the face of this cancer on the planet as...Continue reading
When Sleeping Giants Awake
In the Dune miniseries by David Lynch, a tremor felt in the desert of Arrakis usually meant that a huge, quarter-mile-long sand worm would soon surface and inhale acres of sand and anything on it. But these giant creatures, as dominating as they are, were also the only source of the spice mélange, a substance that increased the vitality,...Continue reading
Playing Politics with HPV–Again
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the vast majority of a number of cancers are attributed to HPV. For girls, these include cancer of the cervix or anus (over 90%), vagina and throat (over 75%). Boys are also just as susceptible to anal and throat cancers, plus HPV causes nearly two...
A Laymen’s Guide to getting Health Insurance on the Marketplace
Whether you plan on enrolling through the Health Insurance Marketplace this year or not there are a few key points everyone should be aware of. These points include the deadline to enroll for 2015 health coverage, the Special Enrollment Period, and the penalties for anyone without coverage. Since the inception of the Affordable Care Act...Continue reading
How PCORI is Advancing Men’s Health
June is Men’s Health Month, and the week culminating in Father’s Day, which this year falls on June 15, is Men’s Health Week. Created by an act of Congress in 1994, Men’s Health Week is a perfect time to remember the health issues facing men. At PCORI, we’re funding a wide variety of research projects...Continue reading
HPV: Michael Douglas—and Male Health Advocates—Were Right
A few weeks ago, actor Michael Douglas caused quite a stir by claiming that the throat cancer that nearly took his life was caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), which he contracted while performing oral sex on his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones. And while Douglas’ statements provoked a lot of jokes, cancer specialists and many other medical...Continue reading
Health Disparities in Post-Cancer Healthcare
A new study has found that older African American and Hispanic men who have survived cancer are far less likely than White men the same age to get follow-up care from a specialist or have basic vaccinations. Interestingly, there were no racial or ethnic differences in post-cancer healthcare between younger male cancer survivors. The study,...Continue reading