When you are a father, you need to make sure that you are doing all you can to take proper care of your own health. That is important not just for your own sake, but for the sake of your whole family. After all, they need their father to stick around as long as possible, and to be able to be the best father you can be. There are certain health concerns which men of a certain age need to be aware of, and these are going to be important for all fathers to know about. Let’s take a look at some of these right now.
Hearing
As you get a little older, you might start to notice that you are developing some problems with your hearing. This is a natural part of aging for many people, and you might find that it starts as young as 40 or so. As such, it’s a good thing to be aware of so that you can make sure you are keeping on top of it. If you fail to do that, you might find yourself having to pretend to your family you don’t have hearing loss – which never works – or having it looked into and receiving some kind of treatment.
Prostate
A major concern for all older men is the prostate. You need to have yours checked on a regular basis, and you also need to make sure that you are keeping your eye out for any of the signs of prostate cancer or prostatic hyperplasia. Once you reach 50, your chances of developing these are much higher. You might have difficulty or pain urinating, and find that you have to get up more at night to urinate. In the worst cases, this could be a tumor, so it is definitely something that you will need to be aware of and keep your eye on.
Depression
There is something of an epidemic at the moment of men with depression. There is an unfortunate, negative cycle at play here, which is that as a culture we often associate depression with a kind of weakness. As such, men are less likely to want to talk about their depression, and that means that the depression itself will usually actually get worse. In the worst-case scenarios, fathers can leave their families to fend for themselves. It’s important that you reach out to someone if you are feeling this way, sooner rather than later.
Heart
Your heart is obviously important at all times in your life. But it is often past 50 or so that many men start to really take it seriously, and that’s partly because you might have heard horror stories of other men you know of your age starting to have cardiac trouble. The thing to do is quite simple: eat healthily, get plenty of exercise, and get plenty of rest. Keep your stress to a minimum and avoid caffeine and alcohol as much as possible. Do all that, and you should be able to keep on top of your heart health much more easily.
