Meeting focuses on men’s health> Speakers advise Caribou center crowd

CARIBOU — That eating pasta three times a week can relieve leg cramps and about 85,000 men die each year from breast cancer were a few of the little-known health care facts presented Saturday during Aroostook County’s first conference dedicated to men’s health.

“We want men to be aware of their health care needs so they can live longer lives,” said Susan Dugal, a nurse educator at Cary Medical Center where the conference was held.

The keynote speaker for the daylong session was Dana Green, a physician’s assistant at the St. John Valley Rural Health Center in Van Buren. Green also is the project director and clinician for the National Diabetes Learning collaborative at the health center.

Women outlive men by about seven years because women are getting more health care, Green said. While women pay attention to the warning signs of health problems, men don’t, according to the speaker.

“They’ve [women] had Cosmopolitan [magazine] since they were 16 or 17,” said Green during his at times humorous presentation to the more than two-dozen men attending the conference.

On the other hand, men wait for decades before seeing a doctor and having regular exams.

Among Green’s tips was advising men to have health and lung screening regularly so that if problems arise, there is baseline data to compare. A cancer survivor himself, Green said only four eggs a week should be eaten and that vitamin B-6 should be taken daily.

Green imparted other medical wisdom, noting that having a pet can speed recovery and a daily intake of garlic does not lower one’s cholesterol.

But using the vegetable spread Benecol does cut cholesterol levels by 14 percent, the health care professional said.

Viagra also has been successful at improving sexual performance, Green said.

“Don’t be afraid to talk about sexual performance,” Green said. “It’s as important as the air we breathe and the food we eat.”

The men attending the conference had several questions concerning the cost of health care and how hospitals bill for their services.

Cary spokesman Bill Flagg said the hospital is willing to explain its procedures. “We want people to feel they can ask us,” Flagg said.

Noting that most of the men in attendance were well over 50 years old, Terry Sandusky of Mapleton said that not practicing health care at the right time can add to the cost of the service.

“Getting back on the right road is jacking up the costs,” he said.

The conference was held as part of National Men’s Health Week, which started in 1994 to increase public awareness of men’s health care needs.

Other speakers at the Caribou session addressed emotional health and maintaining prostate health.

Flagg said the hospital hopes to make the conference an annual event.