And now for the Men

Doing my morning reading today, I was immediately drawn to the headline "Cancer Gender Gap." It seems that word "Cancer" jumps out at me from all over the place these days, when in the past I may not have paid all that much attention to it.

In any case, a new study has found that 32 of the 35 types of the disease are more prevalent in men. I have to say this shocked me a bit because it seems that women's cancers seem so much more publicly discussed, probably because of the huge focus on breast cancer in particular.

The authors of this study suggest that gender differences could be explained in part by different exposures to environmental and behavioral factors such as smoking, occupation and alcohol consumption, but the majority of the gender gap probably results from key biological differences between males and females. "If we could find out what causes the male excess of cancer and somehow eliminate it, we could prevent roughly one-third of all cancer," said Dr. Ellen Chang, the study's senior author. One third!!

So men (and women who love them), you can't shirk your health responsibilities either! I implore you, too, to get your annual check ups, milestone preventative care procedures and - most of all - don't ignore changes in your body or how you feel.