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Steve Paine, OMD |
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Albert Place Practice |
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About Steve Paine About Albert Place Practice Women's Health Men's Health Children's Health CorporateWellness Articles&News Test Your Health |
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Men's health
"Acupuncture had immediate effects on my levels of stress. I simply was not the same person at work. Co-workers could not believe the difference in my disposition. Clients continually comment on my relaxed nature given the stressful environment I have put myself in (CPA, working with taxes). I believe it has helped me stay healthy over the last 9 years..." The big picture: a better strategyEvery responsible man in Hong Kong ought to use Chinese medicine at least once a quarter. He owes it to himself, his family, and his colleagues. Chinese medicine is the premier preventive health care system in the world. The cost to treat a condition is roughly five times as much as the cost to prevent it. The only logical way to reform health care for individuals, companies and societies is preventive medicine and early intervention. According to the US (Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 50% of premature deaths and 70% of chronic health conditions and diseases are preventable with lifestyle modification. Healthy, fit men are far more productive and earn much higher incomes than unhealthy, unfit ones. Furthermore, children model their parent's behaviors, particularly their father's behavior, so a good father conducts himself so as to help his children live healthy, satisfying lives. Men's health issues affect women and children through reduction or loss of income, medical expenses, and disruption of family relationships. Any man who has lost a father or a brother or a close friend through preventable illness, or "lifestyle mismanagement" has seen the devastation wrought firsthand. Asset degradation: the reality of men's healthMen live sicker and die younger than women. Men die at higher rates than women from the top 10 causes of death and are the victims of over 92% of workplace deaths. In 1920, women lived, on average, one year longer than men. Now, men die almost six years earlier than women (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC ). By age 100, women outnumber men eight to one (New York Times Magazine, March 16, 2003. Men are 25 % less likely than women to have visited a doctor within the past year and are 38 % more likely than women to have neglected their cholesterol tests Furthermore, men are 1.5 times more likely than women to die from heart disease, cancer and chronic lower respiratory diseases (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005 ). Men have fewer infection-fighting T-cells and are thought to have weaker immune systems than women. Men have a higher death rate from pneumonia and influenza than women. Men aged 55-64 are twice as likely as women to die in car accidents. Men aged 55-74 are twice as likely as women to die of heart attacks. Two-thirds of premature deaths in the U.S. are due to poor nutrition, physical inactivity and tobacco use. Only 12% of Americans eat a healthy diet consistent with federal nutrition recommendations. The typical diet is too high in saturated fat, salt, and refined sugar and too low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, calcium, and fiber. Overweight and obesity affect the majority of American adults (61%) and the rates for expatriates and overseas educated Chinese in Hong Kong are similar. Obesity is the fastest rising public health problem with rates having risen by 60% over the past decade. Diabetes rates have been rising along with obesity rates. Between 50% and 80% of diabetes cases are associated with unhealthy eating patterns and sedentary lifestyles. Risk avoidance and risk management: staying fitMen are about half as likely to visit healthcare practitioners for preventive care or at the early stage of illness. They are also less likely than women to follow through with care. Men show great reluctance in seeking help for physical or psychological problems and in participating in screening programs. Men have more stoic attitudes towards pain and fear. These attitudes lead to poorer health outcomes by reducing adaptive responses to pain and injury. Men are less likely to avoid painful or dangerous circumstances or to handle health problems quickly. Heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and certain cancers are the result of insidious pathological processes like unchecked anger, sedentary lifestyles, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high stress, rich foods and excess body fat. It is hard to conceive of a disease or chronic condition which is not created or made much worse by these factors. Major health risks can usually be prevented by healthy behaviors and treated effectively if they are diagnosed early. For example, in a controlled study reported by the CDC, the onset of type 2 diabetes was reduced by 58% in at-risk individuals through physical activity and healthy eating. In comparison, the diabetes drug metformin reduced the onset of type 2 diabetes by only 31%. For those who smoke. every time you smoke a cigarette you lose at least five and a half minutes of life. The average smoker lives eight years less than the average nonsmoker. Roughly 50% of those who smoke today and started in their teens will die from smoking. Half of those will die in middle-age, losing about 25 years of life. Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for ten years or more multiplies your risk for heart disease by three times and your risk for lung cancer by five times. Humphrey Bogart, Yul Brenner, Jacques Brel and John Wayne are among the millions dead from smoking. Needling therapy and Chinese herbs work extremely well to clear nicotine from the body, and to reduce cravings and stress so that quitting is much easier to sustain. The Journal of the American Heart Association reports data from a recent U.S. government-supported Veterans Affairs study which included 15,660 participants and is the largest study known to assess the link between fitness and mortality. The study found that "highly fit" men had half the risk of death compared to "low fit" men. Men who achieved "very highly fit" levels had a 70 percent lower risk of death compared to those in the "low fit" category. The study concluded, "Our findings show that the risk of death is cut in half with an exercise capacity that can easily be achieved by a brisk walk of about 30 minutes per session 5-6 days per week." I am a diplomate of the U.S. National Board of Acupuncture Orthopedics, a Certified Disability Evaluator and a certified international trainer with the U.S. National Academy of Sports Medicine. I will help you design a program to get fit, stay fit and get progressively more fit. I license the Body Map™, the health and fitness industry's state-of-the-art web-based assessment and program design tool that can improve your training progress. To help you recover from any athletic injuries you may sustain as you're getting in shape, needling therapy and Chinese medicine have an excellent track record in reducing pain and disability and returning you to work quickly. Typically, musculoskeletal conditions are resolved by Chinese medicine significantly faster than by other means as we can enhance the body's natural capacities for pain control and tissue repair. Increasing return on investment: why use Chinese medicine?Acupuncture gets people well faster than any other approach that I know. It gets people back to work quicker. It makes people more productive. It gathers people's energies and integrates function in ways that no other medical system does. Chinese medicine enhances performance because of its ability to coordinate and integrate body functions and to distribute biologically active substances like neurotransmitters and hormones. Over the last 20 years I've been asked by event producers to treat many celebrity performers. They have repeatedly told me that they need Chinese medicine to perform at their peak in front of tens of thousands of people. I have had the chance to treat 100's of entertainers and athletes in the fields of music, dance, martial arts, professional boxing, and adventure racing. They tell me that they love what acupuncture does for them to increase their focus and stamina. You may be stunned by the news that consumers in the United States who use both Chinese medicine and western medicine overwhelmingly prefer Chinese medicine. They report significantly higher levels of satisfaction with Chinese medicine then with western medicine. A landmark study by Claire M. Cassidy, Ph.D., in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol.4 number one, November 1998, entitled "Chinese Medicine Users in United States: Utilization, Satisfaction and Medical Plurality" presented remarkable findings from more than 600 Chinese medicine patients comprehensively studied. The study revealed that the demographic pattern of consumers of Chinese medicine is one of educated users in disproportionately entrepreneurial, professional, technical and managerial occupations. 75% were college graduates and a third of the respondents had graduate degrees. The study stated that 92% of respondents reported that symptoms or conditions for which they had sought treatment had disappeared or improved. Regarding quality of life: 76% reported that they felt better; 71% stated that they missed fewer workdays; 69% said that they got along better with others; 64% stated that they performed better at work; and 58% said that they were more focused and had more energy as a result of their visits to Chinese medicine practitioners. Respondents reported health care and cost savings while receiving Chinese medicine. 84% said that they were able to reduce office visits to medical doctors. 79% said that they reduced the use of prescription drugs; and 70% said that they were able to avoid surgery which had been recommended for them. When asked to say what factor made the difference in their health, 75% of those who used Chinese medicine and western biomedicine stated that it was definitely or probably Chinese medicine that made the difference. When respondents were asked to compare their levels of satisfaction with Chinese medicine and with biomedical care, the results were as follows. Satisfaction level with Chinese medicine care: extremely satisfied 59%; very satisfied 29%; satisfied 11%; not satisfied 1%. The figures for biomedical care: extremely satisfied 13%; very satisfied 18%; satisfied 36%; not satisfied 23% . Western biomedicine was generally seen as unfriendly, impersonal, patronizing and condescending. What respondents like and experience with Chinese medicine are collegial relationships with practitioners, hands-on care, a sense of being treated as a whole person, education in the principles and conduct of healthy living and the encouragement of self responsibility. Cost cutting: reducing financial and personal costsPrevention programs work. Dr. Joseph Pizzorno in his book Total Wellness reports that prevention efforts reduce days lost to disability by 40%, hospital stay days by 50% and the cost of disease treatment by as much as 76%. ROI analysis of General Motors hypertension screenings revealed that every $1 spent produced savings of $3.94 to $4.91, plus improved productivity. Dean Ornish, MD, director of The Preventive Medicine Research Institute conducted a series of scientific studies showing that even severe coronary heart disease often can be reversed by comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle. Ornish's programs resulted in 2.5 times fewer cardiac events (e.g., heart attacks, strokes, bypass surgery, and angioplasty). Additionally, 80% of the participants who were eligible for bypass surgery or angioplasty were able to avoid the knife. Insurance company Mutual of Omaha calculated savings of almost $30,000 per patient. Reductions in angina incidence were comparable to those of bypass surgery. Male infertility, libido and sexual stamina: a better planFrom the days of the earliest Chinese emperors, Chinese Medicine has focused intensely on treating men's sexual health and performance. Treatment for infertility constitutes a large part of my practice. Ten to twenty percent of couples are unable to conceive after trying for one year, and the problem is particularly serious in Hong Kong where so many professional women wait until after their early thirties to start a family. Men account for 40% of failures to conceive and I have effective programs to improve sperm count, motility (focused swimmers), and morphology (right structure). A normal sperm count consists of around 50 million sperm per ml (mean =57.4 m/ml), with about 50 percent motility and 60 percent normal morphology. Only 25 years ago, counts of 70-100 million sperm per milliliter were the norm. Lifestyle and environmental factors seem to be degrading sperm counts and quality. Men who want to have more children must pay particular attention to exercise, diet, alcohol consumption and managing stress. I will work with you to design a well-rounded program to help get you the results you want. Benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) is an almost universal phenomenon in men as they age, beginning around age 45 and continuing until, by age 70, 90% of men have an enlarged prostate. BPH is the leading cause of urinary outflow obstruction in men. Acupuncture, Chinese and western herbs can do a significantly better job than western medications in actively treating BPH while building rather than reducing sexual strength. Libido, sexual strength and stamina are sometimes difficult to sustain under the extreme pressures of work and travel typical of Hong Kong entrepreneurs, executives and professionals. Frequent sexual intercourse may cut down on a man's chances of developing erectile dysfunction. Finnish researchers report in the July 2008 issue of the American Journal of Medicine that among men who had sexual intercourse less than once a week, there were 79 cases of erectile dysfunction per 1,000 men. That number dropped to 32 cases per 1,000 among men who said they had sexual intercourse once a week, and it dropped even further, to 16 per 1,000, among men who said they had sexual intercourse three or more times a week, the researchers reported. I help clients improve these issues by helping them keep as sexually active as they care to be with an effective program of acupuncture, supplements, Chinese herbs and lifestyle modification. Best case scenario: becoming an "executive athlete"The men who live longest and live best, those whom I call "executive athletes", tend to do the following:
I welcome the opportunity to work with you comprehensively in all these areas.
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