A light blue ribbon is the symbol for prostate cancer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
MOVEMBER – Promoting Awareness for Men’s Health
All too often we speak of Health Concerns that involve primarily women. The television commercials cover women’s health issues like yeast infections, menopause, PMS, tampons etc. including last month’s marketing campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness. This was quite noticeable at one of the local small business meetings in October with some of us wearing pink, drinking coffee from pink cups and others eating the cupcakes covered in pink icing. For men, the commercials that I see the most are related to Erectile Dysfunction – the little blue pill – Viagra or Cialis.
Movember is a movement that started in 2003 by 2 friends in Melbourne, Australia that were discussing where moustaches had gone over the years. Jokingly they decided to bring it back in the month of November changing the name to Movember. The campaign in its first year had 30 registrants – challenged by the founders to join them in growing moustaches. No funds were made in 2003. You can read about how the pair got started and how they were actually motivated by a friend who cheered them on while she was involved in the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.
http://ca.movember.com/uploads/files/2012/MO_FoundingFathers_history.pdf
Today, this initiative creating awareness for Prostate Cancer now has 854, 288 registrants with funds totalling over $301 Million dollars. It is now a worldwide initiative to promote Men’s Health including Prostate Cancer and most recently Mental Health. Canadians last year had the largest campaign in the world raising $42 Million dollars.
As you know Prostate Cancer will be diagnosed in every 1 in 7 men with an expected 26, 500 Canadian men in 2012 to be diagnosed. This type of cancer is said to be without symptoms making early detection through a physical exam the best way to diagnose. The causes for Prostate Cancer remain inconclusive although it is cited to say dietary, environmental and hereditary may be the leading causes. Learn more about the Canadian movement at http://ca.movember.com/about/ or read about my very good friend – Timothy Swift’s link to how foods can help with Prostate Cancer. Tim is a Naturopathic Doctor practising in Toronto.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/772936?src=mpnews
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