Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

Next Sunday is Father’s Day and the week leading up to it is Men’s Health Week as part of Men’s Health Month in June. I shared with you last week how my husband reminded me about the spirit of charity when I forgot it. This month, we need to remind the men in our life how important it is to take care of themselves. For years I played in a tennis league and tried to encourage my husband to do something regularly for exercise. But he wouldn’t. It wasn’t until someone he knew who was around his age died of a heart attack that he finally realized how important it was to take care of himself. He began doing martial arts three times a week. Sometimes men need a wake up call like that but they shouldn’t have to wait for someone to die to start taking care of themselves. The Men’s Health Network (MHN) in its Drive for Five , is highlighting information on five important health risks for men--high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high prostate-specific antigen ...

The whole month of June is Men’s Health Month so I’m starting the month off talking about men which is a subject most women love.  Like Women’s Health Week and Mother’s Day, Men’s Health Week precedes Father’s Day going from June 11th to 17th and International Men’s Health Week overlaps that a bit going from June 13th to 19 th this year.    What do all these dates mean?  That people around the world know that men need to think more often about their health.  For Women’s Health week and Mental Health Month, I interviewed a women and mental health advocate.  Since I don’t know a men’s health advocate, I decided to take some tips from the well-known and trusted Dr. Mehmet Oz.  He didn’t have a shorter list so here are his top 25 tips for men’s health. 1.  Find a way to laugh, which eases stress, promotes social bonding and lowers blood pressure 2.  Eat breakfast and have some fiber in it, too 3.  Get s even hours of slee...

This month is a phenomenon in men’s health known as Movember . It’s all about sporting a Mo (mustache) and growing it to great lengths while you shun shaving for the month. At the end of the month, you can show your Mo at a Mo Party. In the meantime, you can share why you are growing your facial hair and why else? To support men’s health.   The Movember site has tons of information about men’s health, prostate cancer and testicular cancer as well as health resources for men. While growing your Mo, you can also raise money to support research on cancers that affect men such as prostate cancer.   The funds go to programs run by Movember and its partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVE STRONG , the Lance Armstrong Foundation. You can create an online page to which people can contribute for your Mo growth. Movember offers prizes for the teams with the best Mo page, the team and individual that raises the most money and also has random prizes for those that rais...