By Moses Okorie
A medical practitioner has revealed why more men tend to die of sickness than their women folks, attributing it to lack of medical check-up on the part of men as they are too busy taking care of their wives and children, and pay less attention to their own health.
Dr. Charles Ikeji, the Medical Director of Kefland Family Hospital located at the 2nd Gate of Apo Mechanic Estate in Abuja, the nation’s capital, made this revelation, Tuesday, in an interview with NationsPride in his office, calling on men to always go for medical check-up to ascertain their health status as well as take some rest in order to live long and enjoy with their families.
According to him, “When a woman has a pain or anything, she will shout and call attention. They’re always demanding attention. And because of that, they’re able to talk about their complaints, but most men tend to endure, especially when they look at the economic aspect of it; spending of money, because they have to care for their wives and children. You see them trying to manage their health.
“Most men don’t want to go to see doctor. They don’t want to go for checkups, because they are considering other economic values, and they have this I don’t care attitude; it has to be well”.
According him, only about 30 per cent of men seek medical attention compared to 70 per cent in women, because most men regard women as weaker persons hence the reason for going to the hospital.
Dr. Ikeji enumerated some ailments that affect the men such as have high blood pressure, hypertension, other stress related diseases like peptic ulcer, prostate cancer; enlargement of prostate, and yet they don’t find time to investigate until it gets out of hand.
“They are being busy; their works, lifestyles have taken over their health consciousness. They don’t think it is necessary, especially in Africa, to go for a normal checkup. By and large, what they suffer mostly is hypertension and its complications. It may be stroke, kidney failure or blindness.
“So many of them have what we call glaucoma, which is a raised blood pressure in the eye. And other illnesses that are related with stress and tension, because they seem to stress more than women. Stress related diseases are more in men than women”, he stated.
The physician advised men to slow down with some of their daily activities and believe that there is God, adding that things mustn’t happen by what they get or what they achieve, but they have to rely on divine providence.
“They need to do medical and physical checkup from time to time. And they need to be conscious of these two killer diseases we have in Africa that are killing more people than road accidents; high blood pressure or hypertension, with is complications. And then diabetes; sugar problems.
“Rest is very, very important. It is not of he that wills, or he that runs, but it is God that shows mercy. They need to be reliant on God more than ever in their own strength.
“And then cool down so that they will last longer and enjoy both their wives, their children and generations to come, and not just coming up, but before you know it, the man is gone. Death rate is so high among men, very high”, he warned.
On other causes of death amongst men when compared to their women counterpart, is the high demand on men both from their immediate families and the society in general.
“Most of the time, the type of society we have is what we call patriarchal. That is, it’s rested on fathers. Men are mostly the source of livelihood for family even though now the women are coming up.
“But men are those that usually go to fight, struggle, and work so hard to be able to take care of the women and their children. Even if there is war, it’s men that usually go, and that is why there are more widows than widowers.
Dr. Charles Ikeji has practiced for 43 years in the medical field as a General Practitioner and then later on as a Family Physician. He said he only did his housemanship in public hospital and also in his days as a corps member with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and since then has been in private practice.
