Assessing Men's Personal Health

Your health is extremely important. No matter how well you do in other areas of your life, it can be less enjoyable if your body is in a state of disrepair. Without a high level of health and personal fitness, you will not have as much energy, you will not be able to do as much and you will not be as happy as you will have more aches, pains and general discomfort. You should check your health regularly to ensure that everything is in order and that you do not need to make any lifestyle changes.

Instructions

• 1

  Stop smoking. Wean yourself off cigarettes, use nicotine gum or just go cold turkey. Smoking is correlated with lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure, in addition to affecting your general fitness level. To be as healthy as you can be, you absolutely must not smoke cigarettes.

• 2

  Ensure that your body fat is not too high. Ideally, you should be less than 20 percent body fat. The best way to measure your body fat level is through skin fold testing, as it measures the actual amount of fat on your body rather than just comparing your height and weight like other measurement systems do. You can do skin fold testing yourself with a set of calipers, but it is easier to have someone else do it because of the angles involved. Doctors, nutritionists, personal trainers and a host of other people involved in personal health and fitness can do this for you.

• 3

  Check yourself for testicular lumps every time you shower, particularly if you are younger than 40. Testicular cancer is more prevalent in men under 40, and if detected early is one of the most treatable forms of cancer.

• 4

  Wear sunscreen whenever you're out in the sun. Excessive exposure to the sun can cause painful burns in the short term (each of which weaken your skin) and skin cancer in the long term, in addition to the cosmetic effect of wrinkling your skin.

• 5

  See a doctor every two years until you are 40, and every year once you turn 40. This will ensure that the more complex elements of men's health are checked regularly. The doctor will check for things you can't check for on your own, such as diabetes and other medical testing.

• 6

  Test your physical fitness every few weeks. This is, of course, assuming that you exercise regularly. In a perfect world, you'd be able to bench press 1.5 times your body weight for one repetition and run 1.5 miles in 10 minutes or less. You may not be able to do this, but if you're working toward these goals you will be reasonably fit and healthy.

• 7

  Eat a balanced diet full of fruit and vegetables, along with animal or vegetable protein and whole grains. Limit the amount of saturated fat you eat, and drink alcohol only in moderation.