Top 5 Men’s Health Checks: An Insurance Perspective
It’s June, and it’s men’s health awareness month. We at Amssurity are promoting health among our clients, prospective clients, and the ones who can just reach our content. Our core business is health insurance and we aim to ensure that you are well educated on matters of health and the insurance plans that we have and what they can offer to help support healthy living and consequently increase longevity.
Table of Contents
Men’s Health Statistics
In this age of information, statistics are crucial in showing us an overall view of where we are in terms of keeping healthy. The unfortunate part about getting health statistics in Kenya is that information is not only low but places a huge focus on women and children. Based on the feedback of a few of the people we talked to men usually tend to seek medical help only when things get very serious, and tend to avoid routine checkups.
Data from https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/ shows that:
Men’s Health: Annual Check-Ups
When it comes to being on top of your health and looking into ensuring that you don’t become a statistic, one aspect we are promoting among our male clientele is the annual wellness check. The cost of these checks can either be covered by your insurer or you can consider setting aside some funds every year for this purpose. Some of these annual check-ups include:
- A comprehensive history and physical exams
- Random blood sugar
- Kidney functions to look into Urea content, electrolytes creatine
- Liver function test
- Stool for occult
- ECG (Electrocardiogram)
- Lipid profile at least once every year
- Prostate cancer (Prostate-Specific Antigen, PSA) Screening, One test a year
- Colonoscopy once every 10 years for men over 50 years or as advised by your doctor
This list is not comprehensive but it can be a good place to start ensuring you are at the top of your health. You can consult your GP or your medical doctor who can advise on this and what other men’s wellness checks can be ideal for you and specific to your health requirements. The key thing to remember is that the old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” definitely applies to your health.
Men’s Health: Mental Health and Wellness
An article by The East African last year discussing mental health in Kenya shows that during the Covid-19 pandemic there is a huge gap in how matters of mental health are handled for men. It pointed out that once the feeling of wanting to isolate and feelings of loneliness start to creep in it is time to seek help. Depression is the leading cause of mental illness in Kenya affecting over 1.9M Kenyans so far and this number might be higher than shown.
According to the article, men are more likely to die from suicide showing that 58% of men are more likely to die of suicide than women. Unresolved issues due to the burden of “masculinity and men aren’t supposed to show emotions” make it difficult for the men to seek help and therefore we are encouraging you that you don’t have to be alone.
Most health insurance plans have therapy options for treating depression and anxiety issues and we, therefore, encourage you to talk to your health insurance provider to see how you can access these services.
Men’s Health Fitness
Keep Moving!!
Being fit is no longer a luxury and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Kenya has affordable gyms that you can be able to attend. Is the gym out of question for you? What about taking a walk? going hiking? playing football with the boys? According to WHO, we need 150 minutes of moderate activities every week to keep our heart and body healthy. Go for that jog, a walk with your family at the end of a workday.
Not only does taking a walk help bond with your family and friends, but it also helps clear your mind of day work and keep helps keep your mental health in check. This and other forms of physical activities release the feel-good hormones, dopamine, which makes you feel good; serotonin, which reduces depression; and endorphins, which make us happy and thus help to reduce physical pain and help keep you in a good place both physically and emotionally.
Men’s Health: Social Life
We all need a support system to keep us balanced. Not only does this promote men’s wellness but also ensures you make meaningful connections with those that matter most in your family. Talk to your parent, talk to your partner, play with your children, nephews, and nieces, and form meaningful social groups with your friends above all have healthy fun.
We are strong as our support system therefore this means that as men, carefully curate the people we need to have in our life to ensure we don’t have to sail through life on our own. Life is precious and that is why we need the men in our lives to live long and fulfilling lives both in the social, economic, and other areas of life.
Men’s Health: Nutrition
The other key area of men’s wellness is nutrition. Statistics show that men are less likely to eat fruits and vegetables and therefore likely to miss out on key micronutrients and vitamins. A balanced meal that captures all major food groups, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats is also key.
In terms of calorie requirements and to ensure that reduce risks associated with obesity,
- 2000 calories for men with a very sedentary lifestyle is ideal
- For moderately active men 2,200 -2,400 calories
- 2,400-2,800 or more calories for fairly active men are good levels of activity.
- Men’s health supplements
In the quest for good health, we aim at reducing the amount of alcohol consumed, process sugars and carbohydrates and so much more can be done under the guidance of a licensed nutritionist or by doing more research online. Some insurance companies in Kenya offer annual nutrition services to their clients.
Other resources to help you keep healthy and better understand men’s health, men’s health subscription, and take preventive measures include :
Amssurity aims to provide good advice on where these health insurance plans can offer this and so much more. Get a quote now and compare the various plans we have.
Let us embrace men’s health together this year.