Men's health

Men's health refers to a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, as experienced by men, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. These often relate to structures such as male genitalia or to conditions caused by hormones specific to, or most notable in, males. Some conditions that affect both men and women, such as cancer, and injury, also manifest differently in men. Men's health issues also include medical situations in which men face problems not directly related to their biology, such as gender-differentiated access to medical treatment and other socioeconomic factors. Some diseases that affect both genders are statistically more common in men. Outside of Sub-Saharan Africa, men are at greater risk of HIV/AIDS – a phenomenon associated with unsafe sexual activity that is often unconsensual.

Organizations

In the UK, the Men's Health Forum was founded in 1994. It was established originally by the Royal College of Nursing but became completely independent of the RCN when it was established as a charity in 2001. The first National Men’s Health Week was held in the USA in 1994. The first UK week took place in 2002, and the event went international the following year. In 2005, the world’s first professor of men’s health, Alan White, was appointed at Leeds Metropolitan University in north-east England.

Men's Health

Men's Health (MH), published by Rodale Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, United States, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 40 editions in 47 countries. It is also the best-selling men's magazine on U.S. newsstands. Although originally started as a men's health magazine, it currently covers various men's lifestyle topics such as fitness, nutrition, fashion, and sexuality. The magazine's website, MensHealth.com, averages 38 million page views a month.

History

Launched by Mark Bricklin in 1987 as a health-oriented service magazine, Men's Health has evolved into a lifestyle magazine for men, covering areas such as health, fitness, nutrition, relationships, travel, technology, fashion and finance. Bricklin, along with Rodale editors Larry Stains and Stefan Bechtel, initially produced three newsstand test issues. The results led Rodale to launch Men's Health as a quarterly magazine in 1988 and begin to sell subscriptions. Bricklin, who was editor-in-chief of Prevention magazine, appointed Mike Lafavore as editor of Men's Health that year. In his subsequent 12 years as editor-in-chief, Lafavore grew the circulation from 100,000 to more than 1.5 million, took the publishing frequency to 10 times a year, and expanded the magazine's brand to a number of countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Mexico and Russia. He created the editorial formula still in use today, brought aboard Steven Slon, a veteran of the service journalism category, imported Greg Gutfeld from Rodale's Prevention title and worked with longtime staff editor Denis Boyles, a former Playboy contributing editor, to develop the magazine's influential and distinctive "regular guy" voice. Lafavore left Men's Health in 2000, the same year Capell's Circulation Report named the magazine "Circulation Performer of the Decade." He appointed Greg Gutfeld as his successor. After a year, Gutfeld was replaced by David Zinczenko.

Health

Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental or social challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value and because of the problem created by use of the word "complete" Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction. Classification systems such as the WHO Family of International Classifications, including the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), are commonly used to define and measure the components of health. Health is that balanced condition of the living organism in which the integral, harmonious performance of the vital functions tends to the preservation of the organism and the normal development of the individual.

Man

A man is a male human. The term man is usually reserved for an adult male, with the term boy being the usual term for a male child or adolescent. However, the term man is also sometimes used to identify a male human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "men's basketball".

Like most other male mammals, a man's genome typically inherits an X chromosome from his mother and a Y chromosome from his father. The male fetus produces larger amounts of androgens and smaller amounts of estrogens than a female fetus. This difference in the relative amounts of these sex steroids is largely responsible for the physiological differences that distinguish men from women. During puberty, hormones which stimulate androgen production result in the development of secondary sexual characteristics, thus exhibiting greater differences between the sexes. However, there are exceptions to the above for some intersex and transgender men.

Etymology

The English term "man" is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *man- (see Sanskrit/Avestan manu-, Slavic mǫž "man, male"). More directly, the word derives from Old English mann. The Old English form had a default meaning of "adult male" (which was the exclusive meaning of wer), though it could also signify a person of unspecified gender. The closely related Old English pronoun man was used just as it is in Modern German to designate "one" (e. g., in the saying man muss mit den Wölfen heulen). The Old English form is derived from Proto-Germanic *mannz, "human being, person", which is also the etymon of German Mann "man, husband" and man "one" (pronoun), Old Norse maðr, and Gothic manna. According to Tacitus, the mythological progenitor of the Germanic tribes was called Mannus. *Manus in Indo-European mythology was the first man, see Mannus, Manu (Hinduism).

Women's health

Women's health refers to a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, as experienced by women, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Some of these relate to structures such as female genitalia and breasts or to conditions caused by hormones specific to, or most notable in, females (e.g. menstruation, birth control, maternal health, child birth, menopause and breast cancer). Some conditions that affect both men and women, such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, also manifest differently in women. Women's health issues also include medical situations in which women face problems not directly related to their biology, such as gender-differentiated access to medical treatment and other socioeconomic factors. Worldwide, women and girls are at greater risk of HIV/AIDS – a phenomenon associated with unsafe sexual activity that is often unconsensual.

Women's health is an issue which has been taken up by many feminists, especially where reproductive health is concerned. Women's health is positioned within a wider body of knowledge cited by, amongst others, the World Health Organisation, which places importance on gender as a social determinant of health.