hi every day is the perfect day to remind the men in your life about the health issues they face and the importance of addressing them and really what they can do to take charge of their mental and physical well-being unfortunately there's a cultural and media-driven expectation for men to be these solid rocks and never show vulnerability never show any kind of weakness or or something that might make them seem like they're not as strong as we want them to be well that notion also translates into men seeking less and less Medical Care and addressing their health well I'm here to tell you that real men get yearly physicals they share their feelings they seek help from mental health professionals and they really try to stay physically fit as much as possible but they still don't eat cake and chips all the time now today we're going to highlight some of the conditions that affect men some of their treatment some of their symptoms and really just how do we help our men stay best at their health we're also going to answer any questions that you have today on this episode of ask the doc send in your questions to questions at allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com welcome to ask the dot the show where we encourage you our viewers to send in your healthcare related questions I'm Dr gumal core I'm a double board certified primary care physician here in Coral Springs and we're going to talk about Men's Health today a very important topic how it affects men and how we can help them manage it and stay best healthy and stay at their physically the peak of their physical fitness and mental Fitness so let's get started our first question of the day comes from G and she just reached out to us on our website allhealth tv.com gory asks Dr core my husband just turned 60 and like a teenager still thinks he's going to live forever he rarely if ever gets physicals and colonoscopies or any other health screening can I do well gory this is not uncommon a lot of men in fact most men think that they're invincible and we want them to be so that's great that's a great mentality to have but unfortunately this does happen all too often and this prevents them from seeking medical care because they think it's a sign of vulnerability or weakness before I share some suggestions let's watch this video from our friends at the Mayo Clinic when it comes to health numbers everybody has to start somewhere and a good somewhere is your doctor's scale according to Internal Medicine physician Dr vond what is your weight what is your height what is your body mass index it's also called a BMI Dr bday says a BMI reading can indicate if you're carrying too much body fat are you uh overweight are you obese extra pounds can push up your blood pressure reading another number you should know the American Heart Association says yours should be less than 120 over 80 and then of course there's blood tests that are important Dr bday says these tests reveal things like a blood glucose level an indicator of your diabetes risk and your cholesterol reading a marker for heart disease two more numbers to know and to track with your doctor on a regular basis I think it's important for everybody to see their doctor at least once a year that was some great information from the Mayo Clinic G regarding your husband I'm going to advise you to do the same thing that I do with my own I take away his race car toy and keys until he goes for his annual physical every year seriously no but jokes aside I think it's really important to emphasize to your husband how important his health is to himself of course but also to you and to the rest of your family it's necessary for them to understand that and then that helps them motivate to go get their annuals and stay as healthy as possible also the fear of unknown sometimes prevents us from doing things and letting your husband know what happens during his annual exam might alleviate some of those fears so letting him know that you know your your doctor's probably going to give you a physical examination just to make sure everything looks sounds and feels the way it should probably going to get some blood work done and then your doctor's probably going to recommend some screenings like colonoscopies very very common um also you know vaccines that might be uh appropriate for your husband and other recommendations based on his lifestyle and his risk factors speaking of Lifestyle they may even make recommendations for some lifestyle measures like and exercise I hope that helps our next question is from Mitch and Mitch reached out to us through YouTube Mitch says hi Dr core what are the common causes of erectile dysfunction and what treatment options are available FYI I'm asking for a friend well Mitch you're a really good friend this is something that's very commonly asked by many men and it is something that can be a touchy subject as well but before I discuss let's watch another video I'm Dr John Terrell I'm a urologist at Baptist Health Fort Smith erectile dysfunction is an extremely common Condition it's estimated that about half men will experience erectile dysfunction in their lifetime it can severely affect quality of life it also can be a sign of other health issues It's associated with diabetes high blood pressure and can be an early warning sign of heart disease one of the ways I can treat erectile dysfunction at Baptist Health is with placement of penile prosthesis penile implant has been used for decades to successively treat erectile dysfunction in men it has an extremely high patient and partner satisfaction it can provide a permanent solution to erectile dysfunction while it can be very uncomfortable to talk about it is worth having a conversation with your doctor so that was some great information erectile dysfunction also known as Ed has been diagnosed in Believe It or Not 10.3 million men in the year 2020 in the United States however the incidence of men who have erectile dysfunction is probably way more than that and the reason that is is because men don't generally seek attention for it mostly because they're embarrassed or they're shy and because of that the numbers and the statist statistics that we have are much lower than what's actually out there but I would like to encourage your friend and all men to talk to their physician if they're having symptoms of erectile dysfunction or if they have any concerns about it and how they can prevent it what they need to do to stay healthy we do understand the physical and emotional toll that Ed can have on a man and and on his relationships his marriage his uh sexual relationships and his self-esteem but as your Physicians we are trained and we are empathetic to this and we really just want to make you as healthy as possible and help guide you to that plus we have validated treatments now and they can help you and help your symptoms and sometimes can even fully resolve them so excuse me as mentioned always the first step is talk to your physician now let's lay out some causes of Ed and some of them might even surprise you one of the causes can be heart disease then there's clogged vessels then there's mental health issues high blood pressure can also affect it including some high blood pressure medications diabetes is a very common cause of Ed that we see nowadays obesity canot affected as well believe it or not certain prescription medications as I mentioned can also cause ED using tobacco whether it's chewing tobacco or smoking alcoholism or any other kind of substance abuse can lead to ED symptoms and then low testosterone something that's very commonly known can also cause erectile dysfunction now this next question kind of is one that keeps you up at night and it comes from Vernon who just visited our ver Facebook page thank you so much Vernon and Vernon says hi doctor I'm something of an insomniac so I guess this is a sleep question can you discuss the importance of sleep for men's health and provide some tips for improving sleep oh absolutely I get this question all the time Vernon and it's it equally in men and in women it's just something that's very common nowadays difficulty sleeping whether that's difficulty initiating sleep or difficulty maintaining sleep I know a lot of people that are suffering from this right now but before I drop some knowledge on you I'd highly recommend that you talk to your primary care physician about it because there's so many causes of sleep disturbances you always want to get to the root cause of a problem and that's how you best treated it now sleep is something that's so important again for both men and for women and even though you might think that hey I'm sleeping my body's at rest all my systems are shut off that's actually not true in fact you'd be surprised to know that certain uh internal systems of yours are firing on all cylinders when you're sleeping you're really not shut off as much as you might think you are now some of these tasks that your body completes while sleeping um is one of them is restoring your brain balance so memory that helps um concentration those are re-energized rebalanced during sleep mechanisms also sleep is very important in hormone regulation so some of those hormone regulation Pathways take place during sleep as well and then there's tissue repair there's restoration of energy there's so many things that happen in your body so point is this is why sleep is so important and according to the American Academy of sleep medicine adults are supposed to get at least seven n 7 to n hours of sleep for Optimal Health and most of us probably aren't getting that I know I'm guilty of it sometimes but you know what we really need to do what we can to try to because sleep is so important now not getting sleep can definitely negatively affect your health and in many ways it can affect your mood your memory um your critical thinking skills the quality of your sperm now we're kind of um narrow ing down to how it can affect men it can affect negatively affect the quality of your sperm it can lower your testosterone and these items can lead to infertility so as you can see sleep is so important hopefully these sleep tips that I'm about to list out are going to help but don't forget to check in with your PCP burning because like I said you want to get to the root cause of what's really causing your sleep problems now here are some sleep tips to improve your sleep and improve your health the number one I'm going to talk about is sticking to a sleep schedule you really want to be regular with the time you go to bed and then the time you wake up yes even on the weekends um you want to pay attention to what you eat and drink for instance caffeine you want to avoid caffeine in those 3 hours before bedtime you want to create a restful environment in sleep nice cool dark avoid noise avoid lights anything that could possibly act as a stimulus to wake you up you want to limit your daytime slap SN naps because if you're sleeping during the day your body thinks it doesn't need that much sleep at night so it's going to disturb that cycle you want to exercise and include physical activity in your daily routine the best time to do it is right when you wake up in the morning really really helps with your melatonin cycle as well and then the most notable one that I discuss with my patients nowadays is managing your stress and your anxiety and your worries because those can really keep you up at night now in case you missed it the first time here's another opportunity to find out how you can send in your Healthcare questions send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the doc page on our website allhealth tv.com now our next question comes from YouTube and this one comes from Rajiv thank you Rajiv for sending this in he asks hi Dr core I heard what you said earlier about real men taking charge of their physical and mental well-being and I guess it resonated with me I'm glad so here goes how does testosterone affect Men's Health and what are the signs of low testosterone thank you so much for sending this question in it's a very important question Rajiv and I'm so happy that you're taking charge of your own health and really trying to figure things out to keep your health at its best so before I answer your question let's check out what the doctors at Mayo Clinic have to say yep it's a Mayo Clinic type of day guys testosterone is a key male hormone that is responsible for characteristics like hair growth muscle mass and deepening of the voice as men age testosterone levels gradually decline particularly over 40 the main complaint I see as a urologist is a lack of interest in sexual functioning but fatigue uh changes in mental acuity less stamina and very often mild degrees of depression are associated with a falling testosterone in some cases infertility can be tied to low testosterone but presenting these symptoms or traits is not not an automatic diagnosis Not all men need testosterone it's very important that this diagnosis is properly made it's made based upon symptoms but also the actual blood level the serum level of testosterone when it comes to treating low testosterone the most common way is a cream applied to the upper arm but injectable or pill forms of testosterone are also available what you should notice is that within 48 to 72 hours of your dosage that your desire has improved that was some great information low te you hear about it all the time now it's in the news it's on magazine covers it's on the radio it's everywhere and the last few years have really really wreaked havoc on everyone physically and mentally at least to some degree now the stress of the pandemic is likely something that has led to poor lifestyle habits for many people men included and this in turn has led to negative Health impacts um more stress less sleep more unhealthy eating this is a great formula for reduction in your testosterone levels but before we proceed let Begin by outlining what testosterone is we hear about it all the time but sometimes we we have to stop and think what this does to our body that's positive so we know that when we're low or when men are low what to expect and why to expect these symptoms now testosterone is a hormone in the body that is present in higher levels in men than in women and it has so many functions it helps regulate a man's libido um his bone mass his muscle mass um it obviously AIDS in the production of sperm and even in the production of red blood cells you'd be uh surprised but it has a lot of functions and just like the video mentioned as men age there is a certain degree of decline that we see in t in testosterone but not always will a man feel the symptoms at low levels sometimes the levels got to get really low in order for you to feel symptoms but like the video also said that's not a correlation on whether or not you need replacement or you need treatment the first thing to do is go get your levels tested and then if you're having symptoms then you and your doctor can talk about what the right treatment for you is now if a man's testosterone declines he may notice symptoms that do relate to the items that I mentioned your libido might below usually that's the main cause that makes men come into the office and talk to us about it um the men may also notice less hair on their face less energy so they're feeling tired all the time um decrease muscle mass you're going to the gym you're lifting weights you're working out but you're just not seeing that that pump that you're used to when you were 20 or 30 um and then your endurance might be reduced and then let's not forget the mental health impacts of reduced testosterone as the video mentioned you can certainly have um some degree of depression there might be even irritability or anxiety basically low tea can present in a lot of different ways and the first course of action like I said is to get your levels checked to see if that's really the cause of these symptoms and and then you and your physician can make a plan to treat it safely because there are side effects of testosterone so you really want to take it safely you want to make sure you're being given the right type and the right dosage and you want to be regularly monitored now let's move on to our next question this one is short and sweet this one comes to us from Cindy and Cindy sent it through Facebook her question is what helps memory um well I wish I could remember exactly no I'm just kidding so there's a lot of things that can help memory and then there's a lot of things that can negatively affect memory as well as mentioned earlier one of the best things that you can do to improve your memory is getting enough sleep so at least 7 to n hours of restful uninterrupted sleep on average every night if possible uh is one of the best ways to improve and maintain your memory some of the other tips for improving memory are regular physical exercise even just 10 minutes a day helps if you don't have time to go for a 30 to 40 minute run walk or exercise session even just doing those 10 minutes is great staying mentally active so crossword puzzles puzzles in general board games anything that involves those critical thinking skills is something that's really going to help you maintain good brain health mental health and maintain that memory believe it or not spending time with your loved ones that definitely helps with memory as well because it also helps prevent some mental health conditions like depression and anxiety and then that improves your brain health and your mental health and then eating healthy oh food good whole foods that have vitamins micronutrients minerals all that really helps in those brain Pathways that help to maintain and improve your memory and then there's stress reduction and meditation now stress when it's high that can negatively impact your memory so on that note making it low definitely helps and meditation has also been proven to improve with your memory systems now most importantly it's very very critical that you see your primary care physician and you're regularly taking care of those chronic conditions that you may have because a lot of chronic conditions if they are un untreated or unmanaged or if they become complicated can negatively impact your memory so you want to make sure that you're staying on top of those as well now we have another question that comes to us through our website allhealth tv.com and oh by the way you should really check out our website because there's a plethora of great information on there now this question is from Latoya and she says Dr core my husband miles is 60 wonderful oh that's so cute and he's such a sweet man but he's probably gained about 25 lbs over the last four to five months and I can't get him to eat better or exercise I'm worried about him having a heart attack and dying in an ambulance like his father did oh I'm so sorry to hear Latoya would like to know what lifestyle changes can he make to reduce his risk of heart disease and improve his health Latoya thank you so much for reaching out and I love the fact that you're concerned about your husband I can totally relate sometimes I feel like we got to knock them on the head a little bit and and you know nudge them to do these healthcare related things so he's so lucky to have you for that now my first question is how did he gain this weight in a fairly short amount of time you always want to get to the root cause so if you feel like he's gained this weight out of nowhere in a short period of time then you really want to encourage him to see his primary care physician to get it checked out because sure we can probably recommend methods for weight loss like diet and exercise eating healthy and all that stuff but if there's something else that's contributed to his weight gain then that's what we really want to address to properly manage his weight so encourage him to CH talk to his PCP and get it checked out first also I think it would help um help to motivate him uh into implementing a healthier lifestyle and improving his health just by letting him know how much you care sometimes love really is the answer it's cheesy but it's true so like I said just simply talk to him and encourage him to see his PCP adopting a healthy life style is definitely key to preventing heart disease so exercising regularly avoiding processed foods anything that Mother Earth didn't make try not to eat it um so eat as healthy as possible avoiding Alcohol and Other risky substances it all really helps tremendously so that's probably going to be the first step now we got another question from our Facebook page and this one comes to us from Lance and his question is hi Dr core I've never talked to a female doctor before so this is a little embarrassing but my friend was just diagnosed with testicular cancer and it really got me thinking how often should men perform self- exams for testicular cancer and what should they look for during these exams thank you for your question Lance and it's really a good one I I can't tell you how proud I am of all these men sending in their questions because that means you're taking your health care seriously and that's the first step to optimizing your health now everyone advocating for themselves is wonderful but you always need a physician to Advocate with you as well so if you're having concerns always see your doctor first now I'd like to start by saying that testicular cancer is actually one of the most curable solid cancers or tumors that we have even when it's diagnosed in a late stage so that being said some of our major medical societies differ in their recommendations on whether or not a man should be performing a self- exam so some Society say it's not recommended because there hasn't been enough data to prove that it helps or that it helps prevent one death from the cancer itself it gets a little complicated but then we have the American Cancer Society who says that men should be performing a self exam once a month so when you're performing this exam what are you looking for I'll get into a little bit of the details basically what you want to do is gently roll the scrotum between your fingers and really you're feeling for any lumps or bumps and if you notice anything you want to see your primary care physician or your urologist as soon as possible so you can get it looked at get it diagnosed and then get it treated so always do the screenings if you're comfortable with them and Report anything that you find that's unusual you know your body best so if you feel like something's off let us know oh wow if you've got questions we've got answers and just in case you missed it the first few times here again is how you can send us your Healthcare questions send in your questions to questions at allhealth tv.com or all Health go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com so keep those questions coming I love answering them and I love knowing that these answers might be helping you guys so thank you now the next question comes to us from Instagram and this one is from Kirk Kirk ask Dr core I've been feeling a little constipated the last couple of weeks and I'm not sure but I think I saw some blood in my stool I'm 41 and I've never had a colonoscopy before I'm in no rush but that said do think I should schedule one okay so Kirk this is a quite an involved question but a very important one and even though I can't diagnose you over the phone or over the television I really really want to encourage you to see your PCP about this because we do take any kind of blood in the stool or when you see blood when you go to the bathroom very seriously I have some tips but before I answer your question and get to those tips here's a video from our good friends at the Cleveland Clinic [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that was a great video and with some great information we've had some great videos from Mayo Clinic and now from Cleveland Clinic as well now there's many reasons for blood in your stool and like I said we do take any kind of blood in the stool seriously so the first thing I'm going to say is please talk to your doctor about it it could be something as simple as an abrasion of the skin around the anus or it could be something as drastic as cancer whatever it is you want to get it looked at and get it treated as soon as possible now this is a topic that's very very important there's a lot of symptoms of colon cancer that I just want to list really quickly if you have a change in your bowel habits that came out of nowhere if you have rectal bleeding or bleeding in the store if you have ongoing discomfort in the belly area like cramps gas or pain any feeling that the bowel doesn't empty all the way weakness or exhaustion there's a lot of symptoms but if you're having blood in the stool please please please go get checked out now this has been great there's been so many questions and I hope I've answered them to the best of my ability and helped you guys as always we love hearing from you so please do continue to send us those questions that's it for this episode of ask the doc thank you for watching everyone we'll see you next time send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth goo on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com