Preface

We live in the rapidly moving information age, with the latest news, traffic, weather and sport only a finger-tip or text message away. The same applies to information on health, yet, as the saying goes, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

As a family doctor with a special interest in men’s health. I am aware of the large gap that exists in many cases between Irish men and good health. Indeed, this gap is widening all the time with more and more men succumbing to largely preventable illnesses, often with tragic consequences.

Hence the idea for this book, the aim of which is to simply help bridge the gap in knowledge that sometimes exists on the ground, as well as challenge the prevailing attitudes to healthcare among Irish men. As a family doctor working in a busy city practice I am well aware of the natural reluctance of many Irish men to access healthcare, except in an emergency. Of course none of the information in this book is designed to replace the one-to-one relationship with your doctor. However, I also know from experience that many Irish men don’t have a doctor, or at least one they know well enough!

For the Irish man who takes the time and effort to read any, part, or all of this book, I hope it will help give you the confidence to approach your family doctor if and when necessary. I also hope you will understand better the importance of proactively managing your health, just as you would service your own car. The important message is that you can take control of your health and improve it significantly. Prevention is, after all, much better than cure. As they say, a stitch in time saves nine.

Of course men’s health affects all of us, not just men. For the women who have fathers, brothers, sons, partners or friends, men’s health issues are important for you too. As men we have a responsibility to nurture that gift of good health and to keep ourselves well. This means we need to be willing to change, to accept help, to re-adjust the speedometer and to get a regular service too.

This book is in many ways the product of the current knowledge, thinking and understanding in healthcare of men’s health issues. In this regard I am grateful for and wish to acknowledge my medical colleagues worldwide, whose wisdom, experience and research has brought medicine to where it is today. And still the journey of exploration continues. The one certainty in healthcare is that the only constant is change. This means that new, pioneering breakthroughs can become established best practice and replace existing treatments. But the foundations of good health, including a healthy diet and lifestyle with plenty of exercise, remain constant. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

As a doctor I can appreciate every day just how wonderful the gift of good health is. All parents have a tremendous opportunity to help nurture their children, who will become the men and women of tomorrow. Leading by example can help children to model their behaviour on ours so that healthy habits learned young can be engrained for ever. This applies to exercise, diet and a whole range of physical and mental health and lifestyle issues.

I hope that this book will give men the knowledge, confidence and courage to take control of their own health and not become another statistic. Men owe this to the mothers who reared them, to the partners who take care of and worry about them and to the children who depend on them. But, most importantly of all, men owe it to themselves.

I hope this book will make a difference.

All royalties from this book will go to the men’s cancer division of the Marie Keating Foundation, who work passionately and tirelessly to promote men’s cancer awareness.