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Shining light on issues that for a long time have gone unaddressed.
Psychology Today, November 14, 2022
Over the last 30 years, acceptance of mental healthcare and access to resources have expanded exponentially. Understanding of anxiety, depression, and trauma has reached public consciousness like never before, shining a light on issues that for a long time have gone unaddressed. Despite this increased availability and support, there is a silent epidemic when it comes to the world of men and their mental health. According to the CDC, 1 in 10 men experiences anxiety or depression, but less than half reach out for help. They are less likely to seek help for mental or emotional difficulties overall. In 2020, men died by suicide almost four times as much as women. They are more likely to binge drink to cope and are three times more likely to die as a result of alcohol or substance abuse. Men are also lonelier. While there are common ways that men respond to grief, that does not mean that they are actually processing their emotions or coming to a healthy resolution. The real issue is not that men have some other means or manner of grieving. It is that the Western cultural expectation of men discourages grieving altogether.
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Personnel Today, November 18, 2022
A third of men aged under 35 worry that admitting to struggling with mental health somehow makes them ‘less masculine’, a survey has suggested. The poll on men’s emotional and mental health by the charity Future Men also found more than half (51%) of young men believe society expects them to “man up” when faced with challenges. A similar percentage (52%) of UK adults, both male and female, felt that “crying in front of others” would also make men feel “less masculine”. The poll, conducted by YouGov, surveyed 2,168 adults, of which 1,005 were male. Forty-two per cent of the men polled felt men were pressured by society’s expectations of them, and 40% thought this led men to suffer from anxiety as a result. More than a third (37%) of young men (or those aged 18 to 34) believed that society still expected them to “be the breadwinner” and 49% of the total sample of adults polled believed that “not being able to provide financially” would cause a man to feel emasculated. “As we head deeper into a cost of living crisis, these results are deeply concerning” said Owen Thomas, managing director of Future Men.
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The Conversation, November 17, 2022
Many people think of erection problems as a condition that only affects older men. But you don’t have to look far to find reports of the condition among men in their 20s and 30s. Some research even estimates that half of males who report having difficulties getting or maintaining an erection are in their 30s. Yet despite how common erection problems may be – affecting nearly half of men aged 18-60 – there remains a lot of stigma and shame around having the condition. This can be especially true when you’re young, thanks to the sexual scripts many have grown up hearing – such as that they should always be ready to have sex, that they should get aroused at the drop of a hat, and that they should be able to perform perfectly every time. As a result, many won’t seek help, or will try to fix it using “solutions” that really only mask their problem. For example, there are reports that many younger men are turning to prescription and over-the-counter drugs, such as Viagra, to cope. There are a number of reasons why erection problems may happen, including certain health problems (such as hormonal imbalances or high blood pressure). But one of the most common causes of erection problems, particularly among young men, is anxiety.
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Diabetes.co.uk, November 13, 2022
Men following an inactive lifestyle are more likely to develop health complications compared to women with a sedentary lifestyle, new evidence has identified. Academics from the University of Missouri School of Medicine has found that men regularly eating sugary foods and not exercising are at risk of developing vascular insulin resistance. Vascular insulin resistance is commonly associated with people who are obese and have type 2 diabetes, according to the study. Chief author Dr Camila Manrique-Acevedo said: “We know that incidence of insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease is lower in premenopausal women compared to men, but we wanted to see how men and women reacted to reduced physical activity and increased sugar in their diet over a short period of time.” “To our knowledge, this is the first evidence in humans that vascular insulin resistance can be provoked by short-term adverse lifestyle changes, and it’s the first documentation of sex-related differences in the development of vascular insulin resistance in association with changes in adropin levels.”
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US News, November 14, 2022
The brains of girls and boys who have binge eating disorder show key differences, according to a new study. That's an important finding, researchers say, because both genders struggle with eating disorders, yet treatments are mainly targeted at girls. "Males have been excluded from research on eating disorders for decades," said Stuart Murray, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. He noted that the exclusion stems from the belief that it was uncommon for males to have eating disorders. "As a result of the exclusion of boys and men, we have developed treatments only from studying females, which we then apply to boys and men and hope they work with the same efficacy," Murray said in a school news release. "As a result of the exclusion of boys and men, we have developed treatments only from studying females, which we then apply to boys and men and hope they work with the same efficacy," Murray said in a school news release.
Some eating disorders are nearly as prevalent among men and boys as in women and girls. Evidence is mounting that eating disorders are diseases of the brain and not the result of social pressure or a lack of willpower, according to researchers.
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News Medical Net, November 17, 2022
Optimum nutrition is essential for athletes interested in improving and maintaining their body composition and sports performance. Restrictive energy intake, along with structured exercise, is an effective non-pharmacological approach for achieving these results. Intermittent fasting (IF) has become a popular alternative to energy restriction (ER). IF is a dietary approach that varies between feasting and fasting periods. Fasting periods typically occur for a specified overnight duration, while feasting periods involve consuming food during limited time windows. IF can be practiced using several different protocols; however, time-restricted eating (TRE), during which eating is limited to a few hours each day, has been studied extensively. Only three studies have focused on the impact of TRE on endurance markers in young and well-trained males, each of which reported no change in aerobic capacity. However, improvements in inflammatory markers and body composition were observed after four weeks of TRE, along with high-level endurance cycling. A recent study demonstrated that four weeks of TRE intervention could effectively reduce body mass in trained young males. However, it does not provide any benefit to working capacity or aerobic capacity.
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This clinical toolkit is for health care providers who serve adolescent and young adult (AYA) males between the ages of 10 and 25. For each of nine health domains, the toolkit contains four major clinical tools:
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A downloadable checklist for health care providers
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A compilation of suggested patient interview questions for each domain.
- Supporting materials for each domain consisting of background information, practice tools and references.
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A video library of CME and patient education presentations on subjects covered by the toolkit.
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Zmescience.com, November 14, 2022
A new study found that boys whose fathers were present and involved with their upbringing when they were teens had lower testosterone levels when they later became fathers in their own turn, compared to boys who lived in households with an absent father. The new study was led by Lee Gettler, an anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame who previously made headlines when he showed that the transition to fatherhood causes new dads’ testosterone levels to sharply drop. Those findings were very insightful, showing how men are, at least to a certain degree, biologically hardwired to care for their children. Now, this new study shows that adolescence is a critical period during which social relationships between a boy and his father can influence later hormone production, with far-reaching consequences later in life. The notion that humans are outliers and that fatherhood may be hard-wired in our biology has only recently come to light. In the 1990s, a study on US Army veterans showed that married men had significantly lowered testosterone levels than their single counterparts, and some even used a testosterone booster supplement. Another study on Air Force veterans indicated that men’s testosterone levels increased around the time of divorce. But it wasn’t until recently that the link between testosterone production and fatherhood was put into an evolutionary perspective. In 2011, Gettler and colleagues studied a community-based sample from the Philippines, showing that men with higher testosterone were more likely to get married, but also that fatherhood caused their testosterone to decrease.
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Scripps National, November 17, 2022
Sperm counts are dropping among men across the world, according to research published in the academic journal Human Reproduction Update. Researchers called their findings a "significant public health concern." They note that sperm count is not only an indicator of human fertility. "It also is an indicator of men's health, with low levels being associated with increased risk of chronic disease, testicular cancer and a decreased lifespan," the researchers said in a press release. The study notes that sperm count declines have accelerated in developed parts of the world, including North America, Europe and Australia. “Our findings serve as a canary in a coal mine. We have a serious (environmental) problem on our hands that, if not mitigated, could threaten mankind’s survival," Levine warns. The study's authors are calling for global action to promote healthier environments.
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Reuters, November 18, 2022
Thousands of children who were assigned female at birth have sought gender-affirming care in recent years. And for reasons not well-understood, they significantly outnumber those assigned male at birth who seek treatment. The outsized proportion of adolescents seeking treatment to transition from female to male has sparked parallel concerns. Professionals in the gender-care community agree that treatment of all transgender children should be supportive and affirming. The question, for some, is whether peer groups and online media may be influencing some of these patients to pursue medical transition, with potentially irreversible side effects, at a time in their lives when their identities are often in flux. Adolescents assigned female at birth initiate transgender care 2.5 to 7.1 times more frequently than those assigned male at birth, according to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a 4,000-member organization of medical, legal, academic and other professionals. Several clinics in the United States told Reuters that among their patients, the ratio was nearly 2-to-1, and similar phenomena have been documented in Europe, Canada and Australia. Corey Basch, a professor of public health at William Paterson University in New Jersey who researches health communication and teens’ use of social media, said she fears that some adolescents are susceptible to making faulty self-diagnoses without adequate input from medical professionals. “Teens are so incredibly vulnerable to information overload and being pushed in one direction,” Basch said. “They could be lacking the analytical skills to question who is giving this advice and if their advice is valid.”
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FIVE PARTNERSHIP SYMPOSIA ON YOUNG MALE HEALTH NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
Five symposia on Young Males and ADHD, Young Males, Healing Partnerships and Promoting Resilience, Young Males and Depression, Young Males, Body Image and Eating Disorders and Young Males and Suicide, are now available online.
These are the first five symposia in a series of eight. Future symposia will cover An overview of the State of AYA Male Health, Young Males and Reproductive Health and Young Males, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and will take place in December. More information on the entire series can be found here.
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DENNIS J. BARBOUR, JD
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ABOUT
The Weekly News Roundup is produced by The Partnership for Male Youth and is released every Monday.
For more information contact Dennis J. Barbour, JD.
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