Getting men the help they need

Men aren't always very good when it comes to managing their own health - it's often the women in their lives who help them with everything from making doctors' appointments to taking their medications to becoming more proactive with their wellbeing. Today's guest is Mike Leventhal, Executive Director for the Tennessee affiliate of Men's Health Network, a national non-profit focused on men's health awareness and disease prevention. Mike discusses the challenges men face and shares important insights on what men can do to improve their health and wellness.

To learn more about Men's Health Network and all of the free resources they make available, visit them here. 

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Music:
Rainbows Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Transcript

Bruce Kassover: Welcome to Life Without Leaks, a podcast by the National Association for Continence. NAFC is America's leading advocate for people with bladder and bowel conditions, with resources, connections to doctors, and a welcoming community of patients, physicians, and caregivers, all available at NAFC.org. 

Welcome back to another episode of Life Without Leaks. I'm your host, Bruce Kassover, and joining us today, as always, is Steve Gregg, the Executive Director for the National Association for Confidence. Welcome, Steve. 

Steve Gregg: Thank you, Bruce. Looking forward to this today. This will be really interesting to get a men's perspective on some of the issues that we try to tackle on a daily basis.

Bruce Kassover: I know; I couldn't agree more. I mean one of the things that we probably could all benefit from talking about more is men's health, not just as it relates to incontinence, but men's health in general, and I'm very excited that today's guest is going to be able to do just that. We have with us Mike Leventhal who is the executive director for the Tennessee affiliate of the Men’s Health Network where he's responsible for coordinating programs across the Southeastern United States with community-based organizations and faith-based groups and all sorts of groups like that to try and help promote the message of men's health. So welcome, Mike. Thank you for joining us. 

Mike Leventhal: Thank you, Bruce, for having me on.

Bruce Kassover: Excellent. So before we get going, maybe you want to tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into this position and what is your role? 

Mike Leventhal: Well, way back when… when I say way back, I mean, 20 years ago, when I was a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee, I was doing an internship with a Government relations and marketing firm in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the president of the firm had a connection with the Men’s Health Network in Washington, D.C. He did some lobbying work in Washington. And they had dinner and Bill, my – the person I was working with at the time – said, “You know, there really needs to be some sort of men's health presence in Tennessee and in the Southeast. Have you ever thought about that?” And they, they decided that they would make Tennessee the first state to have its official Men’s Health Network chapter. And so we applied for some funds through a grant and received the funding and what was going to be just a one-year operation going across the state of Tennessee promoting men's health awareness and gathering data and research turned into a now a 21-year-long career for me.

Bruce Kassover: Wow. So I guess you could say you volunteered for that. 

Mike Leventhal: I volunteered for it. And I made it my, my passion and my vocation. It's not just an occupation. It's a vocation.  

Bruce Kassover: That is outstanding. So, first of all, before we even talk about the Men’s Health Network and what it is, when it comes to men's health in general, is that something that seems to be not spoken about commonly among, you know, ordinary folks as much as it should be?

I know that, for example, you know, one of the very valid concerns about a lot of medical research is that it historically has often focused on men more than women. But I sort of get the sense that nowadays a lot of the conversations are often very focused on women's health in ways that are not always focused on men. Am I just crazy?

Mike Leventhal: No, you're absolutely right. You know, oftentimes men's health is overshadowed and men are to blame for that. Men typically do not like to talk about their health, their mental health. They sure as heck don't like talking about their physical health. And so from that standpoint, we're not doing ourselves a service by not speaking up about specific health issues that affect us as guys. Especially as we get older. Why should healthcare providers pay attention? Why should hospitals market to men? 

Bruce Kassover: It does sound familiar. You know, you think of that, that sort of the stereotype of the, you know, the stoic, quiet man who's, you know, who just takes on whatever burden without having to talk about it or bringing it up.

And certainly there is a sense of men being uncomfortable talking about feelings and emotions and other things related to mental health. Do you think that that's gotten worse because of COVID also? 

Mike Leventhal: Oh, absolutely. Especially in the Southeast. It's interesting. I use the analogy men take care of their cars better than they take care of themselves.

You know, these guys they drive around in their beautiful cars that sometimes they'll have a little click in the engine or, you know, it's just not running quite right. Where's the first place they take their vehicle? To the mechanic. But if they have a little stinger, if they're not feeling well, they have shortness of breath, something like that, they put off going to the doctor oftentimes until it's too late. 

Bruce Kassover: Okay, so that brings up the Men’s Health Network itself. So maybe you could tell us a little bit about the organization and what its goals are and how men can be aware of it and take advantage of what it has to offer. 

Mike Leventhal: Absolutely. Well, Men’s Health Network was started back in 1992 as a national nonprofit organization. And our mission is simple. It's to reach men and their families where they live, work, play, and pray. And how we do that is through health prevention messages and tools, screening programs, specifically prostate cancer screenings. When available, we have educational materials and other resources and advocacy opportunities. We also do a little bit of patient navigation as well. 

We have chapters and networks all across the country, partners all over the world. And our goals are to save the lives of men, reducing the premature mortality of men and boys. Improve the physical and mental health of men. And most importantly is the work we do with women as the family's healthcare leader to reach men with our programs and messages.

Bruce Kassover: You know, you said that women are the family health care leader, and that doesn't sound surprising at all. But maybe you want to talk a little bit more about that. I'm sure that there are a lot of people who will probably shake their head when they hear you talking about that, because it should sound familiar.

Mike Leventhal: Yeah, absolutely. Oftentimes, wives and mothers will drag their male loved ones into the doctor's office kicking and screaming. You know, they're the ones who set the appointments. They do most of the shopping. They keep the trains running on time. And also when it comes to medication protocols, men are notoriously bad about taking their medication as prescribed. And so they oftentimes depend on their female loved ones to make sure that they are taking their medications properly. 

Bruce Kassover: So I guess there's also a message in there that if you happen to be a single man, that you probably need to be extra vigilant to take care of these things to make sure that you're keeping yourself on the right path as well.

Mike Leventhal: Well, Bruce, I'm sure you've heard that married men live longer, right? 

Bruce Kassover: Absolutely, yes. 

Mike Leventhal: There you go. Men need to be more self reliant. Men need to be more independent and they need to, they need to take better care of their health. 

Bruce Kassover: Now, that's in reference to, you know, the physical side of things like, you know, I have the pain here or, you know, I have this symptom there, but what about the mental health aspect of it?

Mike Leventhal: Yeah, that's huge. And as I mentioned before, men hate going to the doctor. They really hate going to the shrink. And so a lot of men are living their lives every day depressed and manifest through anger, especially young men, boys. A lot of their depression manifests through anger and in violence. And that's why, in my opinion, and the opinions of many folks that we work with, that's why you see some of the high rates of violence, homicides in some of our major cities, because the boys, the men, the young men in these major cities are just depressed. They're unhappy and they feel like they have no future. 

Bruce Kassover: And I guess some of that ties to, to sort of, I guess you'd say toxic ideas about what it is to be a man and how men are supposed to act. Is that something that you guys are also dealing with as well?

Mike Leventhal: You know, we just try to promote conventional masculinity, Bruce. For us, you know, it's, we, we have our own, I think everybody has their own concept of what it means to be a man and what masculinity is. And so what we just try to do is to make sure that guys are responsible for their health and for their family's health and to be leaders and mentors and role models in our communities. 

Bruce Kassover: Sounds like, like very laudable goals. So if I am, you know, a person, I'm a man on the street. What do I do to take advantage of the Men’s Health Network? First of all, where could I find you? 

Mike Leventhal: Well, we're online of course at MensHealthNetwork.org. As far as our presence is concerning communities, oftentimes, if you're at the local health departments, which I know a lot of men are not, all our resources are typically found in our local county health departments.

Of course, corporations, faith-based organizations, paternal organizations, they all play a role in the men's health movement, and many of them are partners. I can go down the list, but some of America's leading Fortune 500 companies are partners in the men's health movement. 

Bruce Kassover: That's excellent. And did you say what your URL happens to be?

Mike Leventhal: It's MensHealthNetwork.org 

Bruce Kassover: Dot org, okay, very good. And what we'll do is we'll also put a link to that in the show notes. So if anybody is driving, you don't have a pen or anything, then you just click on that and it will take you to it. So if I go to the MensHealthNetwork.org and I'm looking around, what is my typical interaction with you? You know, once I find some information, how do I take – what do I actually do to make use of the services and the support that you offer? 

Mike Leventhal: Well, all the resources we have to offer on our website are free of charge, and, so they can be they can be shared. They can be distributed. They can be printed off. They're all in PDF form. We have an extensive library that covers all the men's health conditions and different topics. We have white papers, reports… Many students, many professionals, researchers rely on our resources on our website for use in their specific areas of programming. So, first and foremost, we are a resource center, and all the resources that we have to offer are made available, like I said, at no charge. 

Bruce Kassover: Now, you did mention something, though, about screenings, particularly prostate screenings. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about that. 

Mike Leventhal: Yeah, sure. Men’s Health Network is, we're not clinicians and we're not providers. What we do is we partner with local healthcare providers to conduct prostate cancer screenings, for example, in underserved at-risk communities. We do our best to try to bring the doctor's office to where the guys are. And so, when that occurs, typically these are large events. We've had hundreds of men. 

In fact, if I could just share one quick anecdote with you, the very first prostate cancer screening I ever conducted was at the Bristol Motor Speedway, and I'm not sure, Bruce, if you're a NASCAR fan or not, but you may know a little bit about Bristol because it's one of the most unique tracks in the NASCAR circuit, and the race attracts over 150,000 fans.

And so we decided we would have our first – or at least my first ever – free prostate cancer screening at the Bristol Motor Speedway. And I'm thinking to myself, nobody in their right mind is going to want to have their prostate checked. But yeah, but sure enough, we had over 100 guys. They had their shirts off, they had their coolers full of beer by their side, waiting in line to get a prostate exam. And that's when I…

Bruce Kassover: Absolutely unbelievable 

Mike Leventhal: …that is when I knew that this program was desperately needed for this. We went to an environment where it is mostly men. We promoted it and they showed up. They took part. And they were extremely grateful because often, oftentimes men, especially men living in certain parts of the country, they don't have health insurance. And so you can't just go into the health department or go into a clinic and get a free prostate exam. They just, they're not being offered. 

Bruce Kassover: And I guess that sort of subverts the stereotype a little bit that we were talking about is that men aren't always very good about taking care of their health. Maybe that when you give them the opportunity and make it easy they will take advantage of it. 

Mike Leventhal: That's what we have found. Yes, if you build it, they will come. And so that is what we try to… that's a model that we try to employ when we do our special events all across the country. 

Bruce Kassover: Although I can only imagine most of those men when they woke up that morning, they said, “Going to go to the race, going to have a lot of fun…” Not one of them thought, “I'm going to have somebody check out my prostate today.”

Mike Leventhal: That is true, but Bruce, here's one interesting little caveat that I left off. This is back in the days when Pfizer sponsored a NASCAR and it was a Viagra car and you couldn't get your free sample of Viagra without first showing proof that you went to our prostate cancer screening.

So that might have had something to do with the amount of – got the turnout that we had – but we like to think it was simple because guys were paying attention to their health, their prostate health. 

Bruce Kassover: I can only imagine how many, how long the line would have been if you were offering free beer. 

Mike Leventhal: Well, they, it was a hot day too. So I know a lot of them came with it with their own, but yeah, that would have been – we may have doubled our numbers, but it's funny you mentioned beer or anything like that. You know, food is another way. A lot of people ask, well, how do you get men to come to your events? How do you, how do you entice men to come out?

Yeah. The screenings are great. The education's great, but what, why do they want to come? And oftentimes it's. It's free food. So, yeah, I think that that is the, a prime motivator.

Bruce Kassover: That is certainly true. Now, there is 1 thing you said that I wanted to go back to, though: You were talking about how you often have people who are, who have no insurance or who are underinsured, and you mentioned as well about going to, to certain more vulnerable groups and those who are underserved and I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the lack of resources or availability of men's health resources in those communities and what we can do to try and improve that?

Mike Leventhal: Oh, yes. There is a real acute lack of any type of resources healthcare-related in these communities where we work in. So for us, what we do is, we always try to build coalitions, build teams up in these particular markets in order to really bring value to these events. So whether it be partnering with a local medical college or with the county health departments, which we rely so much on, the healthcare providers, the different community based organizations, you know, it's very important that we, we can't do it all ourselves at Men’s Health Network.

So we always try to leverage what it is that we do with the help of others. And in these communities, Bruce, and I'm sure you, you've been to several throughout your life, you've seen. some of the conditions and some of our urban communities where… you've heard the term ‘food desert.’ We're just talking their health deserts. There's absolutely no place for someone, especially a guy, to go to get primary care or any type of preventative health screenings. 

Bruce Kassover: You know, and that makes me think also, if we have somebody who's listening, who is involved with some sort of a local organization, maybe it's you know, some sort of a civic organization or, you know, a religious organization, and they reach out to you also to see if they can, if you guys can support through some sort of an event or other activity that their population can take care of.

Mike Leventhal: Yes, absolutely. We would welcome that. We have a new campaign that we're in the midst of getting some funding for, fingers crossed, called Pastors Against Prostate Cancer. And what this is, is we'll be working with historically black churches throughout the southeast to promote the importance of prostate cancer screenings, prostate cancer treatment when diagnosed, and then prostate cancer survivorship. This is focused in communities that are at the highest risks for prostate cancer. 

Steve Gregg: I want to congratulate you because, you know, we've wrestled with trying to figure out how to do things like that and reach through faith based groups. But one of the things that you were talking about that I wanted to see if you’d dwell on just a little bit more is, yes, we want men to talk about their health, but there are issues that men really don't like to talk about. And part of it is associated with prostate screening and so there are these taboo- or stigma-related conversations. Do you have any tips on how to maybe overcome that to make it easier to discuss those kinds of things? And that's one of the big challenges on all of incontinence.

There's so much shame associated with it or lack of willingness to talk about it. Do you have any tips on how you get men to engage in stuff that really they, besides, we don't want to talk about anything related to health, we really don't want to talk about that. 

Mike Leventhal: Right? Yeah. Humor, Steve, that, that is what I do.

You have to blend humor in with these sensitive, serious topics certain populations don't like talking about. You know, let's just be real, the digital rectal exams or colonoscopies. subjects like erectile dysfunction. I mean, these are things that nobody really wants to talk about. And so you just have to make lighthearted, real talk conversations. And it always helps if you have someone there who's been through the process to let the guys know, “Hey, it ain't so bad. It can save your life.”

Steve Gregg: That's a good idea. One of the things that NAFC did recently, we've done it a couple times, is there’ve been events, community events that have nothing to do with health, and we sponsored outhouses and put signs on the outhouse. And what you get are people laughing and enjoying and thinking that, “hey, that is something I ought to look into.” It doesn't come to your mind easily to think that, you know, one of the career highlights is you get to sponsor outhouses, but we did and people loved it loved the fact that we were engaging in a conversation that before they hadn't really thought about. 

Mike Leventhal: Yeah, that's a, that's a great idea too. I'll share another quick anecdote with you as well. When I first had to get up and talk about the importance of testicular self exams, it was to a room full of college soccer players, and these are jocks at this small private college just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee.

And I'm thinking to myself, I'm not much older than they are, you know, at this time, because this is when I first got started with the Men’s Health Network. How can I do this? How can I talk about this? Really sensitive subject to a room full of guys like this. And again, that's when it came to me with humor.

And so that that was years ago, but just about 10 years ago, I created a campaign called “SaveTheDoodads.org,” which is modeled after “Save The Tatas.” I'm not sure if you're familiar with that, but that was a breast cancer awareness campaign. And I reached out to the lady who organized that effort and asked for her permission to do it for testicular cancer. And she said, 
“Absolutely, Mike, go right ahead.” So we did. But yeah, you've got a kind of blend comedy in almost with these with these topics. And it's not always easily done, but it also helps when you have note worthy people who have who have had the disease, as well, that people could kind of identify with.

Bruce Kassover: Yeah, I think that having, you know, having celebrities, having people that we, we know, men admire and look up to and respect, has probably got to be a very nice motivator to help, help really get them to start to take action and feel comfortable doing those things that they had been, might be uncomfortable with also.

Mike Leventhal: Yeah, it absolutely is, Bruce, and we've got this wonderful partnership with the NFL Players Alumni Association at Men’s Health Network, and we're able to pluck former NFL players to come and speak at some of our special events. And when you do that, you know, you get a room full of guys that, you know, want their autograph, their picture with this former NFL player. But you hear from someone who, who may have battled one of the topics that you're there to discuss. And it's quite powerful. It truly resonates with those that attend. 

Bruce Kassover: That's great to hear. Now, I know that you guys actually do a lot more than what we've talked about so far. So maybe you want to tell us a little bit about some of your other efforts and some of the other things that you have moving forward as part of the Men’s Health Network.

Mike Leventhal: Well, one of the cornerstones of the Men’s Health Network is advocacy, and we work with the American Cancer Society and their Cancer Action Network. We are active on the state and federal level as a leader in the national men's health movement. We are working to coordinate efforts to establish commissions on men's health in every state that will coordinate efforts to improve men's health.

And in conjunction with that, we're also working to pass federal legislation that would establish an office of men's health within the Department of Health and Human Services to promote men's health issues on the federal level. Men’s Health Network, we've been involved with Healthy People 2020 and 2030, those different debates, the federal government's national health objective that identifies preventable health threats in each state and ways to prevent those threats.

And all those efforts can be found on our website, too, if you're interested in learning more about our advocacy work in different states. Each state has a public health agenda ,and Men’s Health Network, when possible, works with those advocates on promoting that agenda in each state. Those issues can be related to smoking cessation, biomarker testing, obesity related issues, access to health care, those types of topics that are very popular in state houses across the country.

Bruce Kassover: Well, that's pretty impressive and I can only imagine though that, that what's even more exciting are the results that you're able to generate. So you know, hopefully that proves to be absolutely as effective as we all would like it to be. So that's really encouraging to hear. So thank you for that.

Now, with that being said, Mike, you know that this is the Life Without Leaks podcast. So typically we ask people as we close up to share with us one tip for living a life without leaks. Now, we haven't been talking a lot about leaks today. But I'm wondering if you might want to share with us your one best little bit of wisdom or insight for people, for men in particular, to live a healthier, happier life.

Mike Leventhal: Well, it's quite simple. It's Benjamin Franklin's quote that has always resonated with me: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” 

Bruce Kassover: That makes perfect sense, and if Ben Franklin said it, I believe it also. So, well, thank you for joining us today. This has really been very insightful and I'm really encouraged by the work that you're doing and certainly hope that everybody out there who's listening, all the men will take advantage and visit you guys online, and the women who have men in their lives will encourage them to go and do the same. So thank you for joining us, Mike. 

Mike Leventhal: Thank you, Bruce. 

Bruce Kassover: Life Without Leaks has been brought to you by the National Association for Continence. Our music is Rainbows by Kevin MacLeod. More information about NAFC is available online at NAFC.org.