U.S. men die on average almost five years before women and that gap is widening, according to a recent article in a medical journal which said that the disparity is becoming a silent health crisis.
Louis Sullivan, former national secretary of Health and Human Services, said in the article that the fact that men are continuing to ignore their health is becoming an epidemic within the United States.
"It is time to awaken the nation to the fact that the current health state of men, especially men of color, is hazardous to the nation's long-term health," Sullivan said in a recent edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
Beverly Kloeppel, associate director of the UNM Student Health Center, said that while men are inherently more prone to engage in dangerous behavior, there is a significant amount of denial about serious health issues by both sexes in the United States.
"It is an unfortunate fact that both sexes try to ignore symptoms of diseases that are becoming more prevalent in our society due to our lifestyles," Kloeppel said.
Kloeppel added that women routinely visit their doctor for annual check ups, making them more willing to seek advice when symptoms of health issues arise.
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The root of the problem, Sullivan said, lies in the cultural beliefs about masculinity which undermine good health care throughout the country.
"I, too, was one of the Superman syndrome-type guys," said All-Star NBA basketball player Alonzo Mourning in the article. Mourning was diagnosed in 2000 with a rare kidney-destroying disease.
"I went through that ignoring process, where I ignored the pain," Mourning said. "Now, first and foremost, I make my health a priority."
The article also attributes the widening gap in life spans between men and women to risky behavior by men, which contributes to having higher death rates than women for each of the 15 leading causes of death except Alzheimer's disease. Men's death rates are also at least twice as high for accidents, murder, suicide and hardening of the liver.
David Williams, a sociologist from the University of Michigan, said in the journal article that when it comes to chronic disease, men are slightly more likely to get high blood pressure or cancer and twice as likely to consume more than five alcoholic drinks per day.
Williams said that these statistics, along with the fact that men are more likely than women to be in prison, to be homeless or to use illegal drugs, is due to "Superman Syndrome," in which men are more likely to neglect their health.
"Women are twice as likely as men to visit a doctor each year, and men's visits are shorter and less likely to include advice on behaviors that improve health," Williams said.
