Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
British men's 'stiff upper lip' may be killing them
Source: Agencies |
June 15, 2009, Monday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
BRITISH men's "stiff upper lip" attitude which makes them reluctant to visit their doctors may be behind the fact that they are almost 40 percent more likely than women to die of cancer, according to research tonday.
Their lifestyles may be to blame for them having a 16 percent greater chance of getting the killer disease in the first place.
The odds are even worse for men when gender-specific cancers like breast or prostate are excluded.
Men were found to be almost 70 percent more likely to die from cancer and over 60 percent more likely to develop the disease, research published by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) and Cancer Research UK found.
Lung cancer deaths were also excluded in the study because smoking is known to be more common in men.
"After taking out the effect of age, men were significantly more likely than women to die from every one of the specific types of cancer considered and, apart from melanoma (skin cancer), they were also significantly more likely to develop the disease," said David Forman for the NCIN.
The analysis looked at the number of cancer deaths in the UK in 2007 and the number of new cases of cancer to have occurred in 2006, broken down by disease types.
Scientists were surprised by the findings. They expected to find that non-gender specific cancers would strike women and men in an equal way.
Health experts suggested that a possible reason for the difference could be down to men leading more unhealthy lifestyles, playing down symptoms and not visiting the doctor frequently enough.
"Men have a reputation for having a 'stiff upper lip' and not being as health-conscious as women," Forman said.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK said: "We know that around half of all cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle and it's worrying that this message could be falling on deaf ears for men.
"Importantly, for many cancers, the disease is more likely to be treated successfully if caught early."
Alan White, Professor of Men's Health at Leeds Metropolitan University, said men were "generally not aware" that, as well as smoking, being overweight, having a high alcohol intake and a poor diet increased the chance of them dying prematurely from cancer.
However, the experts emphasised that more research needs to be done before they can pinpoint exactly why the gender gap exists.
Their lifestyles may be to blame for them having a 16 percent greater chance of getting the killer disease in the first place.
The odds are even worse for men when gender-specific cancers like breast or prostate are excluded.
Men were found to be almost 70 percent more likely to die from cancer and over 60 percent more likely to develop the disease, research published by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) and Cancer Research UK found.
Lung cancer deaths were also excluded in the study because smoking is known to be more common in men.
"After taking out the effect of age, men were significantly more likely than women to die from every one of the specific types of cancer considered and, apart from melanoma (skin cancer), they were also significantly more likely to develop the disease," said David Forman for the NCIN.
The analysis looked at the number of cancer deaths in the UK in 2007 and the number of new cases of cancer to have occurred in 2006, broken down by disease types.
Scientists were surprised by the findings. They expected to find that non-gender specific cancers would strike women and men in an equal way.
Health experts suggested that a possible reason for the difference could be down to men leading more unhealthy lifestyles, playing down symptoms and not visiting the doctor frequently enough.
"Men have a reputation for having a 'stiff upper lip' and not being as health-conscious as women," Forman said.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK said: "We know that around half of all cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle and it's worrying that this message could be falling on deaf ears for men.
"Importantly, for many cancers, the disease is more likely to be treated successfully if caught early."
Alan White, Professor of Men's Health at Leeds Metropolitan University, said men were "generally not aware" that, as well as smoking, being overweight, having a high alcohol intake and a poor diet increased the chance of them dying prematurely from cancer.
However, the experts emphasised that more research needs to be done before they can pinpoint exactly why the gender gap exists.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
