Men's Health Guide

Control risks, fill gaps, and avoid misunderstandings. All health care products, folk remedies, and Internet celebrity training methods that are divorced from actual needs are essentially paying IQ tax.

Last week, I met a 32-year-old Internet programmer at the clinic. When I sat down with a big belly, the first thing I asked was if there were any reliable kidney health products. I took his physical examination report and found that uric acid was 580 μmol/L, triglycerides were twice as high, and his blood pressure was stuck at the critical value. I was not aware of it, and my mind was filled with the marketing rhetoric that "men over 30 must take supplements" that they read online. To be honest, I encounter three or four of these situations every week. Everyone’s misunderstanding about men’s health is really too deep.

Take the topic of "testosterone supplementation" that has been particularly controversial recently. Fitness bloggers say that testosterone naturally declines after the age of 30. The sooner you supplement it, the more energy you will have, and even your hairline can be preserved.； Clinicians also say that taking supplements without indications will aggravate acne, increase hematocrit, and even increase the risk of prostate disease. Both sides are reasonable, and there is no need to argue about right and wrong: If you always feel tired and have a decreased sexual desire, go to a regular hospital to get a blood test for total testosterone. If the value is lower than 300ng/dl, then go to an endocrinologist or an andrologist to evaluate whether you need to take supplements. Buying cross-border testosterone gel and applying it on your body is just making fun of your body. Several guys I know who have been working out for many years have never taken exogenous testosterone supplements. They train their lower limbs twice a week. Their testosterone levels in their forties are higher than those of fat guys in their twenties.

Don't always focus on what supplements you take. Daily bad habits are the culprits that drag down your body. It's okay to have skewers and drink cold beer once or twice a week to relieve boredom. If you do it more than three times a week, your uric acid and blood lipids will definitely rise within half a year. Let me talk about a small detail I observed: when male doctors in the Department of Urology go out to dinner, they drink cold beer when no one comes up. Basically, they drink half a cup of warm corn juice to relieve their stomach. They drink only two taels at most and then stop. They are more precious than anyone else. Some people think that eating meat all the time makes them strong. The 28-year-old man I treated a while ago ate fatty meat and white wine all the time. When he had a gout attack, his feet were so swollen that he couldn't even put on shoes. A friend brought him here. He was sweating in pain and asked if he could drink after taking painkillers.

When it comes to exercise, there is no need to meet the standard of "150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobics per week", and there is no need to argue over who is better at strength training or aerobics. If you sit in the office for 10 hours every day and walk briskly around the neighborhood for 40 minutes after get off work, it will be 10 times better than going home and lying on the sofa scrolling through your phone. ； If you like to go to the gym, don’t just train your chest and abdominal muscles every day. Add squats and deadlifts twice a week to train your core and lower limbs. When you are 40 years old, you will know that climbing three floors without gasping and carrying two buckets of water upstairs without shaking your waist is much more practical than having six-pack abs. A while ago, a man who had been working out all year round came to see me for treatment of lumbar protrusion. He trained his upper body every day, but his core strength couldn't keep up. His waist jerked during deadlifts, and he had to lie down for half a month before he could get off the ground.

There are also some misunderstandings that have been spread for many years, and it’s time to clarify them. For example, as the old saying goes, "One drop of semen, ten drops of blood." Some people think that it is necessary to hold back to nourish the body. Others say that long-term abstinence will cause prostatic fluid to accumulate, which will harm the body. In fact, there is no contradiction between what both sides say: abstinence in traditional medicine means not to indulge in sexual desire, not to hold it in. Modern medicine also recommends regular ejaculation. As long as you don’t feel tired the next day, the frequency can be determined by yourself. Don’t believe the nonsense on the Internet about “holding in urine for a long time”. I have seen a young man who practiced blindly and developed acute urinary retention, and had to have a urinary catheter inserted for three days. The gain outweighed the gain. There are also many men who deliberately skip prostate examinations during physical examinations and feel embarrassed. The current consensus in the urology community is that people over 45 years old with no family history should have their PSA checked once a year. If there is a family history of prostate cancer, they should have it checked at the age of 40. Don’t listen to others saying that "checking too early is useless". When there is a problem, it will be too late to cry.

Not long ago, a 45-year-old entrepreneur friend of mine stayed up for a month working on a project and only slept 3 hours a day. He thought he was young and could handle it. However, a physical examination showed that he had frequent premature beats. He was hospitalized for a week before he recovered. The first thing he did after being discharged from the hospital was to cut off half of the night's drinking and sleep for 7 hours a day. Men always like to bear it hard. If they feel a little uncomfortable, they always feel that it will be over if they endure it, or they may look for home remedies and be embarrassed to go to the hospital. There is really no need.

There is no standard answer when it comes to health. You don’t have to copy other people’s health regimen. If you feel comfortable and your physical examination indicators are fine, that’s better than anything else. If you really feel something is wrong, go directly to the men's department or endocrinology department of a regular hospital. Don't believe the advertisements on the telephone poles, and don't blindly buy the "magic aphrodisiacs" in the circle of friends. It's as simple as that.