Why don't men take care of themselves?

Wife and I were talking about this over Thanksgiving. My dad has emphysema. My father-in-law is in a nursing home in his mid-70s because he refused to take care of himself. My step father-in-law is diabetic. All self-induced conditions, essentially.

Wife says it is because they convince themselves that they work hard to provide for their families and such, so they deserve to blow off their health.

We've kind of talked about it before on here, perhaps on the stickied workout threads, but why is it so difficult for men, in particular, to not steer themselves to an early grave in this country?

 

Because taking care of yourself means admitting something could be wrong and for a lot of men of a certain age, denial and avoidance are their watchword in all things.

 

Good point.

A few years ago, my dad was in the hospital for an extended stay after driving his health into the ground. He was basically on the brink of death, having acquired a lung infection because his immune system was so bad from all the smoking and poor nutrition. It was a lung infection that mostly affects AIDS patients. That's how bad his health was.

My mom kept telling him, "If you don't start taking care of yourself and eating something other than Twinkies and cigarettes, you are going to die. You will never see your grandchildren."

His curt answer, every time, "I'm not going to let that happen." But he made no changes, other than, I think, finally quitting smoking except for sneaking one once in a while. But he still will hardly eat. He won't get his teeth fixed. And on and on. Insane. He's relying on magic, I guess.

 

It's all in keeping with the culture. Who has time to live healthily when there's work to be done?
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-03/americans-work-too-much-for-their-own-good-de-graaf-and-batker.html
http://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/

 

Sweeping generalization. I know plenty of men who take perfectly good care of themselves and live to ripe old ages with good health.

 

I think that it is understood that the post meant "in general." Or, "Why don't MANY men take care of themselves?"

Of course there are exceptions.

 

You and JR can be friends for my life then.

 

Like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens?

To the question at hand, I've been on an ebb-and-flow cycle of exercise for years, and what it invariably comes down to is time management. Right now I'm essentially working three jobs in an effort to get out of debt. It simply doesn't leave time to exercise. In terms of overall health I know there's a price I'll pay - already am in some ways - but the financial debt has to go away.

 

But you can still eat well, right? And not smoke. There are choices that don't require your time, necessarily. Just your will power.

 

That's true. I don't smoke, so there's that ...

 

I just make it an absolute priority to get on the treadmill for at least an hour five days a week (or run 6-8 miles in good weather). There have been times in my life where I drag myself up out of bed at 4 a.m. to get on there before the morning madness begins. Not lecturing you. Sounds like you have your plate full. But it's kind of like what people say about having kids: If you're waiting for when you're ready/have time, you'll never be ready.

 

Smoking is just pure insanity, so I don't understand it at all, but yeah, it is an addiction. As to eating well ... I think the next wave (meaning over the next 50 years) of health discovery is going to focus on the impact and possible addictions involved with sugar. There is already a lot of research going into this, and it is of course being dismissed by the food industry as the stuff of tinfoil hats, but I think we're going to learn a lot more about it in the next few decades.

So, in short, while eating right sounds like a good theory and is great practice, it also might not be as easy as that.