The Tool-Kit

Frequently asked questions about the male tackle

The penis, as you have probably discovered, is used for peeing, making babies and generally having fun with. You're very lucky to have one so take care of it.
Malehealth gets more questions about the male tackle than any other subject. We've gone through the lot and tried to answer them in this section. If you read the whole thing - by following the links under In This Section on the right - you should find the answer to whatever is bugging you. If you can't, drop us an email but remember we can't answer your question individually although we will try to update the site.
First up, here's your tackle in technicolour complete with a few technical terms that we use in the section.
Sperm are manufactured in the testicles and pass along the epididymis where matured sperm hang out. The epididymis is a microscopically narrow tube 6m long folded into a space of 5cm - an engineering masterpiece. Just before you come the sperm travel along two narrow tubes of muscle called vas deferens. These meet with the seminal vesicles which are behind the bladder just above the prostate gland.
The seminal vesicles and the prostate gland add their own secretions to the semen. These fluids are alkaline which protect the sperm from the acid in the vagina. At orgasm, the semen is propelled from two ejaculatory ducts along the urethra which runs the length of the penis and out of the urethral opening.

To find your way round the Tool-kit, follow the links under In This Section on the right or use the drop down menus along the top under Physical Health > Penis and Testicles.

How are you?

Health begins between the ears. If it's not right there, it doesn't matter how much you can bench-press, how much you earn or how often you get laid, you won't feel good.
This section of malehealth lets you read all about the key issues in men's mental health today at your pace and as you want to. Nothing flash, just the facts in the words of the men who know: men who have experienced mental health problems themselves. Your comments are welcome but they're not necessary. Just take what you need and get on with your life. This isn't Facebook.
If you're not feeling great, you're not alone. One in six people -  nearly 10 million people across the UK - will experience depression or another mental health problem at any one time.
But that doesn't mean it's easy to talk about it. We all know it isn't - including the men talking on this website. It can be difficult to put how you're feeling into words. This section of malehealth is designed to help you do that. You can be strong without being silent. In fact, strength is often to be found in talking. Without words, mental health problems can kill.
Follow the links below for the main sections and the 'In This Section' links on the right hand side for more.

What is the prostate?

The prostate gland is part of the male reproductive system. Its secretions help nourish the sperm and aid fertility.
About the size and shape of a walnut, it is sited below your bladder and above the base of your penis, between your pubic bone and your rectum. It encircles the urethra (the tube through which urine passes from the bladder).

How it develops

• In newborn boys the prostate is about the size of a pea. It grows very slowly until puberty.
• Then it doubles in size in a dramatic growth spurt.
• When a man reaches his 40s it begins to increase in size again.
• Various hormones control its growth and function. The most important is the male sex hormone, testosterone.

Signs of a problem

The most common sign of a prostate problem is difficulty in passing urine. Changes in the prostate narrow the urethra, the tube which carries urine from the bladder.
You might experience:

• a weak flow
• intermittency — a flow which stops and starts
• hesitancy — having to wait before you start to go
• frequency — having to urinate more often than previously
• urgency — finding it difficult to postpone urination
• nocturia — having to get up at night to urinate

What Health Care Can Learn from a 200 Year Old Economics Lesson

Say you were in a different line of work – the prisoner relocation industry, for instance, and the year was 1790…what’s your most significant business challenge?  Well, if you were doing business out of England, transporting your cargo to Australia without killing them would likely be right up there.
Finding themselves with a homeland prison system bursting at the English seams in the 18^th century, the British government began hiring ship captains to transport masses of prisoners to Australian penitentiaries.  Unfortunately, rough seas of the crossing and ineffective nutrition and medical care along the way took a fatal toll on the individuals being transported – 30% mortality rates per crossing not uncommon.
Over time, the toll also cost the British government.  Yes, these were prisoners, but the public and church railed against the government’s morality failing in allowing the ongoing carnage – the government soon embroiled in scandal.
The British government responded with a host of new rules for prisoner transport – the requirement of medical care practitioners and onboard inspections, lemons to prevent scurvy, raising captains’ salaries, etc.  And although these reforms came with incentives for the captains, they weren’t aligned effectively with the sought-after result – captains finding more reward in selling the government-issued supplemental food at port rather than giving it to the prisoners to keep them alive.  The prisoner shipping program was costing the government even more money, and the high mortality rates continued.
But enter a smart economist of the time who proposed a better idea, and everything changed.  What was it?  Pretty simple really – only pay the sea captains for each prisoner that walked off the ship alive in Australia (not for how many boarded in England).
Fairly immediately, survival rates shot up to 99%.
What’s the parallel lesson for today’s health behavior dilemma?  If we want to truly motivate real and lasting healthy behavior change, incentives must be directly aligned with the outcome we want to achieve.  The fierce tides of maintaining health and wellness can be foreboding and challenging.  But solutions that focus more on the journey, less on the desired outcome risk missing the harbor completely.  Incenting individuals to complete health assessments and screenings is a first step – it begins the engagement process.  But participants need to also be incented to follow through on healthy actions.
Beyond engagement, incenting individuals for health improvement follow-through and results is a game changer in the rough seas (and high stakes) of health improvement.  Isn’t it time we cross the ocean?

All doctors to have mental health and anti-stigma training

We, the undersigned, believe that it is important for all doctors to have some degree of mental health training. We believe that this is important as sometimes through a lack of knowledge or understanding of a topic this may make a patient uncomfortable, sometimes they may even inadvertantly come across in a judgemental mannor.
This is esspecially prevalent in cases of self-injury and less common disorders. We feel that an increased knowledge base for doctors and other health professionals will help with this and may also encourage more people to go to a doctor wen they need to and to therefore gain help for their disorders.
I (the petition starter) suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative identity disorder and have also been a self-harmer for 16 years. As such I hae a lot of person experiance with the above and know how much it can impact on a person.

A Quick Guide to Quickies

Tips for a revved-up romp

By Jennifer Benjamin
In bodice-ripping romance novels, hours of lovemaking sounds wonderful. In real life, marathon sessions can leave you wondering, Are we done yet? In fact, surveys show that most of us prefer sex to last less than 15 minutes.

Makes sense: In a speedy session, not only is there less pressure to have the best sex ever, but the lightning-fast factor can be exhilarating ("I must have you right now!"). To make a minutes-long romp even more satisfying, try these tricks.

37,000 Pounds Later

It’s hard to scan any wellness related publication and not see an article on the obesity epidemic in our country. Even in the short span of our blog, we’ve already posted three pieces related to our overweight population (Obesity – It Gets Worse, Is Obesity Contagious?, Reversing the Health Map). It’s easy to find the problems, often harder to find solutions. Today, RedBrick Health is thrilled to announce we’re the technology powering the amazing results of the The Biggest Loser Summer Challenge, a weight loss competition held by the Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota between Minnesota’s largest employers. The impact of this social contest is clear. Three months. Over 10,000 employees engaged. Over 18 tons lost. Over 16.5 million minutes exercised. Employees motivated to move more and eat better. Read more at Employees at Seven of Minnesota’s Largest Companies Shed 37,000 Pounds in Three Months.

The New Brain Food – Exercise

Employers latching on to the medical cost savings and productivity upturns of implementing effective wellness programs will be pleased to learn their efforts may also be providing an additional competitive advantage – smarter employees!  Extensive research, some of it newly released, indicates physical exercise bolsters our brains and helps stave off normal aging of its healthy cells.
Supplementing the research compiled at the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute of San Diego in the late 1990’s that proved new brain cells are produced as a result of regular exercise, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago just released further explanation of this finding.  Exercise, the new research proves, countermands some of the normal aging process on brain cells and also produces a specific brain protein.  The result?  Neuronal stem cells remain more active and new cell generation is enhanced.
The brain benefits of physical exercise are powerful enough to help laboratory mice ace mazes and other tests.  Imagine what it will help your employees accomplish!

When Health and Wealth Work Together – Everybody Wins

Health and wealth are inextricably connected. We’re reminded of that in each paycheck. Employers are reminded of it at each health plan renewal. Unfortunately, the relationship between the two – health and wealth – has long been a dysfunctional one in the context of employer sponsored health. Sort of like a failed marriage – they’ve been in the same room, but they haven’t really been speaking with one another.
Until now.
RedBrick Health is thrilled to announce our alliance with Fidelity Investments. Together, we are providing an effective alignment of health and finance not formerly available.
We all know the real problem with health care cost control – the 50% of avoidable costs tied to unhealthy behaviors (and in direct consumer control). To generate impactful behavior change, individuals need the right planning tools and support for both their health and finances. They need to see them as related. Our unique solution enables consumers to earn the rewards of good health and immediately invest those earnings into a tax-advantaged retirement vehicle, the 401K.
Why is this link so important? Individuals need the right combination of motivation and support to change unhealthy behavior. And because individuals are motivated by different forms of investment, our platform provides consumers choice – they can invest their ‘health dividends’ via premium reductions, HSA deposits or 401K investment. Either way, a positive tie between healthy behavior and finances is made inseparable.
In many ways, it changes everything about how consumers will view health benefits and how their individual behaviors simultaneously impact cost and wellness.
The alliance of RedBrick Health and Fidelity Investments brings together the combination of support employees and employers need. From a consumer’s perspective, setting up and managing a 401K can be intimidating and confusing. Fidelity has provided the tools, support and expertise to help individuals navigate and make smart individualized choices. Getting healthy can likewise be intimidating and daunting. RedBrick Health provides the tools and support to help make it simple, and even fun.
From an employer’s perspective, the unyielding burden of financing avoidable unhealthy employee behavior is not sustainable. Just as Fidelity helped employers transition from the retirement liability of pension plans to 401K in a manner that enabled employees to gain in the transition, the RedBrick Health/Fidelity solution provides a similar advantage. Employers get out from under the looming shadow of spiraling health care costs, and employees are provided an opportunity to earn healthy rewards that pay, now and in their future.
Financial rewards and investment options for healthier behavior aren’t the whole solution, of course. Employers also need to have direct conversations with employees about the impact of their behaviors and cost. And employees need the support necessary to change those behaviors. The first step is flanking the financial accountability with a real “roadmap” to better health. Combine the financial, personal and social aspects of getting healthy within a positive consumer experience and exceptional engagement and results follow.

Is obesity contagious?

 
Yes according to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Our social circle can have a dramatic impact on our own weight.
Obesity, it turns out, is infectious. On average, having an obese friend made a person gain about 17 pounds. In fact there is a better than a 50/50 chance that you can predict someone’s weight health by looking at those in their immediate social circle.
And, it even seems to infect at a distance: friends who live far away and see each other infrequently are just as influenced by each other’s weight gain than friends who live near one another.
We tend to pattern our behaviors after our friends and establish personal norms that reflect our social network. Friends and family members – and even co-workers – tend to shape our choices. Light up or lace up?  Hit the gym, or beers at the bar? It often depends on what those around us are doing. In fact some social ties have a stronger impact than even spouses and siblings.
The impact of this snowball effect around obesity is huge for employers. It is estimated that this country spends over $150 billion a year on diseases related to obesity like heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.
However there is good news here too: the same ripple effect through our social networks that causes obesity can also create positive health changes. Studies have shown that getting friends, family or workplace groups involved in a nutrition/physical activity programs is contagious. By participating in programs with others it is proven that more weight is lost and kept off longer than doing it alone.
One trend that’s catching fire is the use of healthy social competition within the workplace.  Done right, this kind of activity can spread virally, drive new social norms around eating, exercise, and weight management, and even add a dimension of freshness and fun to employee health initiatives.
We’re doing our part to spread positive health contagion through employer-based social networks. In late May we deployed web and mobile technology that’s helping a whole bunch of employers across the state of Minnesota get healthy and fit – through a cross-company competition rolled out by the Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota.  It’s the “Biggest Loser” corporate challenge. For the latest standings check out the leaderboard at www.competeforhealth.org.
And if you happen to be in San Diego at Healthcare Unbound on July 19-20 stop by our panel session to learn more.
Good health can be contagious too – let’s spread some around.
- Eric Zimmerman, CMO, RedBrick Health

Reversing the Health Map

Forget Al Gore’s PowerPoint map predicting the ominous crawl of global warming devastation; if you want a real jolt of “inconvenient truth” already present, check out the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s map displaying an all out rampage of obesity rates flaring across the U.S.
You need hard evidence the nation’s health is in serious decline? This is it – graphic depiction of lifestyle risk far more bloated than mere “middle aged spread.”  With barely a trace of obesity prevalence noted in the United States in 1985 to the current 30% of the U.S. population, it’s obvious the problem is real and widespread.  That’s right – two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight or obese.
The avalanche impact of this trend is, to say the least, concerning.  As the Journal of American Medical Association reported just last week, individuals need merely gain 20 pounds or more after age 50 to triple their risk for diabetes.  Add to that the cardio, cancer and other risks inherent with weight gain, sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition, and the financial and health implications mount higher.
What’s perhaps most frustrating about this trend – it’s largely avoidable.  Individual lifestyle choices continue to plague our declining health rates while multiplying unsustainable costs.  The April 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine documents people who smoke, don’t exercise, eat poorly and drink alcohol (all individual choices) are three times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease and nearly four times more likely to die from cancer.  In fact, by participating in these unhealthy behaviors, individuals essentially tack on an additional twelve years of aging to their bodies than those who simply abstain from the same unhealthy behaviors.
Employers well know the negative impact of unhealthy behavior reaches beyond premature aging and death.  There’s also a hefty bill, ever mounting, to pay for unhealthy workers – both hidden in productivity declines and obvious in spiking health care tabs.  Take the obesity problem alone – according to a 2006 CDC study, obese patients spend, on average, 42% more than others on health care.
But the quality of life costs to the individual participating in unhealthy habits are also obvious – we don’t need a CDC study to tell us our smoking or sloth is costing us dearly.  So why does the map keep showing the problem worsening?  If the declining health trend is largely due to behavior choices, why aren’t we making healthier choices?
The good news (more than good news – outstanding news) is we can.  We can do many things to turn our health risks in a positive direction, and they are within our grasp more than we likely believe.  The same study that predicts dire health consequences based on current national trends also indicates “modest but achievable adjustments to lifestyle behaviors are likely to have a considerable impact at both the individual and population levels.”  This is not only great news for individuals and their families, but also for the employers largely footing their health bills.
What constitutes as a “modest” lifestyle adjustment? A new Harvard research study finds that individuals can dramatically improve their health and reduce (or eliminate) obesity through routine, low impact exercise like brisk daily walks or biking.  The old excuse that real exercise is too strenuous, time-consuming or requires a pricey membership to a fancy gym flies soundly out the window.  We’re talking a brisk walk daily, not a mountain climb.  The proof is real that maintaining a healthy lifestyle takes motivation but not a lot of effort (relatively).
Knowing this, don’t expect to see fitter employees or more sustainable health care costs anytime soon.  In fact, until employers change the financing of health care and link unhealthy behavior directly to their employees’ individual costs of health care, the downward spiral (and hulking CDC obesity map) is likely to continue.  By blending personalized financial incentives with a fresh consumer experience and powerful social elements, getting healthy can be easier and more rewarding than ever.  A much healthier map is within reach.  But it requires change – both for employers and for individuals.

Healthy Living – The Widening Lure of Incentives

Behavioral economics – it’s not just for health care anymore.
My family and I recently received notice our household refuse collector is rolling out a new program in our neighborhood to encourage better consumer waste recycling habits.  It struck me that the parallels between the challenges to unsustainable health care costs and landfill overuse are close – improvable behavior sits squarely on the shoulders of both.  
Without the right encouragement, it turns out the individual consumer takes care of the environment about as well as they take care of their own health, disposing of nearly five pounds of trash a day (56 tons a year) and separating out only about 10% of it for recycling purposes.  Taking care of the environment and taking care of our bodies isn’t nearly as difficult as our behaviors exemplify.  But the path of least resistance is rarely the road less traveled when it comes to human nature.
But here’s the positive part – the individual will to change unhealthy behavior is intrinsic.  We all want to live in healthier bodies and on a healthier planet.  But when it comes to making our way there, a helpful push can go a long way.
Taking a cue from what we’ve already learned from improving modifiable health behavior, the household waste recycling program in my neighborhood is similarly structured – leveraging sophisticated technology to track and reward individuals for the specific amount of waste material they separate weekly for recycling pick-up,  household recycling bins are directly linked to an online consumer account where individuals can keep track of the recycling points they earn (based on pounds of material recycled), and they convert their earned points to gift cards or community donations of their choice.  Making it rewarding, personal and also easy – we well know how important those three elements are in the effort to reshape unhealthy lifestyle behaviors.
I was curious to find out if this program was having comparable success to similarly structured healthy lifestyle reward programs.  Looking into it further, I wasn’t surprised to discover it was.  In most communities the recycling rewards program has been introduced, recycling volume is at least doubling.  One of the case studies I read indicated recycling rates increasing by 200% since it was introduced 18 months earlier in its community.  Casual recyclers are turning into ardent recyclers, and those who don’t recycle at all begin doing so.
Similar to our industry, the small subsidy to encourage behavior change creates a substantial payback.  Cities and towns are spending less on landfill development while sharing the revenue spikes from recycled material sales.  Haulers are saving money on equipment wear and tear and operational efficiencies.  Just as with health behavior change, the ratio of investment to reward is significant.
We all want to take better care of our health, better care of our planet.  Most of us just need the right mix of encouragement and support to do so.

Obesity – It Gets Worse

The latest news on the nationwide obesity problem is discouraging, to say the least.   Maybe this shouldn’t come as surprise for a nation where fast food restaurants’ newest menu options include using fried chicken patties in place of bread to hold the double slices of bacon and cheese in place. Nor should it come as a surprise in an employer-sponsored health care system where employers and physically fit employees help subsidize the estimated $1,429 per person extra medical costs obese individuals are incurring.  But “double down” on this – you know that Healthy Population 2010 objective the U.S. Surgeon General established to encourage states to curb obesity prevalence among adults to 15%?  Not one state met the objective and overall prevalence of obesity has only widened, not narrowed.
Across the U.S., nearly a third of adults self-report themselves as obese.  Yes, self report…that means the actual prevalence is likely even higher.  And with the related increased health risks for the gamut of serious conditions, from coronary artery disease, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes, to cancer, one has to wonder what the downhill impact will be on an already unsustainable health care burden as these conditions take root.
As the CDC points out, “the problem of obesity is inherently complex, no single strategy has been determined as most effective.”  Changing unhealthy behavior isn’t simple.  That’s also why we’re relieved to see the Surgeon General’s vision of a Healthy and Fit Nation promoting the importance for comprehensive approaches – addressing both nutrition and physical activity, incorporating multiple settings (including work sites and social contexts) and placing emphasis on changing individual behaviors as well as the environments and policies that effect those behaviors.
As a society, we should all be alarmed at the ever increasing decline in health these obesity rates foretell.  As employers, we should be putting strategies in place right now to help stem them.

What’s Wrong With Health Insurance?

Every time my family’s home or auto insurance comes up for renewal, I am reminded of how disjointed that other major form of insurance – health insurance – remains in comparison.  Probably like you, my wife and I review our home and auto renewal offer to make sure our premium reflects the discounts we should have earned – protective alarms in our home, safe driving records, claim free histories, etc.  These discounts are, of course, not just marketing ploys but a reflection of authentic actuarial equivalents of cost drivers.  Insurance companies base my insurance risk, and my relative premium cost, on my actual behavior.
Not so with health care.
Our system of employer-sponsored health care is a sharp contrast to every other major form of insurance.  It’s the only major system of insurance where your individual behavior gets a pass.  Meanwhile, 50%+ of total health care costs are driven by avoidable individual unhealthy choices.  Can employers continue to subsidize smoking, sedentary lifestyles, poor eating habits and non-compliance with chronic condition treatment plans?  Should those individuals making healthy choices continue to pay for the unhealthy choices of their co-workers?
When people ask me why I believe so ardently the financing of health care needs to be restructured, I often use the example of another employer-based benefit we all rely on as an important safety net – the retirement framework of 401(k) investing.  Can you imagine what would happen if our 401(k) system was structured similar to the way health plans are currently?  Imagine if employees were encouraged to carefully plan their retirement savings needs, evaluate their individual risk tolerance, research funds and contribute a percentage of their income throughout the year only to have their employer re-distribute all the invested dollars evenly among all employees at the end of the year, regardless of the number of dollars or work each employee contributed.  If 401(k) investing was simply on the “honor system”, what motivation would anyone have to contribute to an employer-structured retirement savings plan at all?
That’s the crux of the health care dilemma – the current structure provides little motivation for individuals to make healthier choices.  There’s little or no direct relationship of healthy behavior to individual cost.  It’s not equitable, not motivating.
The good news is more employers are beginning to see the value of changing this problem – the value (and reward) of a healthier alignment of behavior to individual cost.  Also helpful, the finalized health care reform legislation makes it even more affordable for employers to incentivize healthy behavior.  To maximize success, employers will benefit from providing their employees the personalized support needed and the social elements that encourage sustained lifestyle changes.
None of us look forward to receiving our annual insurance premium bills in the mail.  But won’t it be satisfying when our individual “premium” for health care finally factors in and rewards us for the positive steps we achieve for taking better care of our health?
- Kyle Rolfing, CEO, RedBrick Health. Speaking at The Conference Board Employee Health Care Seminars with Hess Corporation on September 28 in New York and October 26 in Chicago.

Kicking the Habit May Require More Kick

Glimpse any two minutes of the popular television series Mad Men, a compelling mirror of 1960’s American culture, and chances are you’ll see at least one of them smoldering between someone’s fingers or lips.  In the boardroom.  On the airplane.  In the living room, kitchen and family car.  Even primary physicians during patient visits are smoking them.  Cigarettes are so prevalent on the set of Mad Men, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the line item “Lucky Strikes” hover at the top of the production budget.
Did our culture really embrace smoking that handsomely a mere few decades ago?  Have we truly reversed the direction of this single tenet of unhealthy behavior?
The good news is our culture has made significant strides away from smoking prevalence since the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health published its comprehensive report linking cancer risks to smoking in 1964 (and Congress passed the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act the following year.)  The bad news is, even with the multitude of new research indicating a full range of additional health risks and morbidity impacts of tobacco use (from the gamut of cancers to heart disease, stroke and a myriad of others), the declining trend line of smoking prevalence has flat-lined.  In 2005, 20.9% of adults were classified as smokers.  In 2009, 20.6% were. That’s a half decade of virtually unchanged tobacco use declines.
Kicking the habit has also lost its steam in teen communities, as well.  Between 1997 and 2003, teenage smoking dropped from 36% to 22%.  However, in 2009 it remained virtually the same as the 2003 level.
Even more alarming, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention just released a study indicating more than half (54%) of children between the ages of 3 and 11 years old are being exposed to second hand smoke.
Have we reached an unmovable wall of smoking decline and prevention?  Is an 80% non-smoking population the best we can hope for?
Hardly.  If you compare state by state smoking prevalence rates and examine the different state-sponsored approaches to tobacco use, you’ll easily note the relative impact.  California, for instance, has implemented aggressive and long running tobacco control programs and realized smoking prevalence declines by 40% virtually the same time period (between 1998 and 2006) the nationwide prevalence declines stalled.  As a result, lung cancer is now declining in California four times faster than the rest of the nation.  Maine, New York, and Washington have experienced 45-60% youth smoking prevalence reductions in recent years as a result of their sustained efforts directed at this population.
Sustained engagement, once again, proves key.  A recent study by the Oregon Health Science University supports this theory, as well.  They studied smokers trying to quit over a 12 week period and discovered those who ultimately do quit fall into one of two camps – those who abstain and quit immediately and those who relapse during early weeks of treatment but eventually quit.  The study emphasized how delayed quitters account for as much as one third of smokers who successfully remain abstinent one year post intervention – a significant population achieving healthy behavior change not immediately but over time.
Mad Men’s Don Draper may remain a hopeless chain smoker the remainder of the series, his lungs ever pocked with Lucky Strikes char.  It was the 1960’s, afterall.  But today’s smokers fare a far better chance to reform.  The right balance of motivation, education, intervention and sustained engagement can get them (and keep them) tobacco-free.