Men's health week serves as a reminder to men - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

6/15/10

Men's health week serves as a reminder to men to get an annual check-up

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By Karin McCay| email

Edited by Kristin Beerman | email 

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) –  This is men's health week, which is a good time to encourage the men in your family to see a doctor about a nagging problem, or just because that regular check-up is long overdue.  Aside from the recommended annual screenings for blood pressure, blood sugar, cancer and more, Dr. Ray Smith, a family physician at Covenant, says men should get checked out even when they say "my only problem is I'm just tired," because "tired" can be an important symptom.

"There's so many causes of fatigue and lack of energy, anything from becoming anemic, mood disorders like depression, to problems with the thyroid gland," said Dr. Smith.  "There's an entire fatigue work up that we do when somebody comes in with a chi problem of fatigue, it's so non-specific that many things can cause it."

Dr. Smith says it's even important for men to get their height checked every year because 10% of men get osteoporosis and a decrease in height is the best way to catch it and treat it before bone loss makes them noticeably shorter.

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