By Donathan Prater

Published: April 25, 2008

They’ve always been concerned with building the spiritual faith of their members through their ministry, and now they will shift that focus to maintaining their physical well-being too.

This month, True Deliverance Holiness Church will host ‘A Healthier Lifestyle for a Healthier You: A Salute to Our Men,’ a health workshop specifically geared toward men of the minority and larger communities.

In past years, there have been other community health-related events hosted by TDHC, but Sutricia Johnson, a registered nurse with East Alabama Medical Center and Parish Nurse for TDHC, said a special effort has been made this year to underscore the importance of men (especially those in the black community) taking better charge of their health.

“It’s imperative that men of all communities acknowledge the importance of being proactive and not reactive when it comes to their health,” Johnson said.

The May men’s health workshop will feature activities like free blood pressure checks, medication counseling from pharmacists, free prostate cancer testing and free colon cancer self-testing kits.
While talking about matters of health may be difficult for some men, the statistics can’t be argued with.

“In some cases men may be in denial or take an ‘it can’t happen to me’ approach about their health, but the numbers don’t lie,” Johnson said.

According to Johnson, the World Health Status of Black American males states that in comparison to their white male counterparts, black men have a 40 percent higher incidence of type-2 diabetes and are 20 percent more likely to die from heart disease.

The outlook is equally disturbing when it comes to colorectal cancer, also a growing problem for men in the black community.

“It is the third most common cancer among African-American men,” stated Johnson. “The five-year survival rate is 90 percent when the cancer is localized but drops to about 64 percent when the cancer has spread to surrounding organs and lymph nodes.”

However, there is a little promising news concerning prostate cancer among across the board according to the National Prostate Cancer Coalitions.

Prostate cancer deaths have dropped 32.5 percent during the last 10 years, possibly in response to an increase in early detection, still the mortality rate for African-American men is 2.36 times greater than that of Caucasian men.

While the men’s health workshop will tackle a number of men’s health issues, Johnson said the idea behind an event like this isn’t to scare men off, but rather to keep them in the game - of life.

“Our hope is that this event provides a non threatening environment that will foster open discussion about any health care issue that men may be facing,” said Johnson, who added that careful and thoughtful support of family members may just be that gentle nudge in the right direction some men need to start making positive lifestyle changes.

n Men 18 to 39 should get a physical every three to five years with focus on heart disease, diabetes and hypertension (some cancers and cholesterol).

n Men 40 to 49 should see doctor every year with the same above listed areas of focus.

n Men 50 to 65 should have a physical every year with same focus in addition to prostate and colon
cancer screens.