Australian men, over 50 years old, regularly neglect their health, we are constantly told, and not enough of them undergo yearly medical check-ups.
Professor John McDonald thinks he's got a solution to that problem. Fifty-plus year old males could be registered and forced to undergo a medical every year.
But only if "attempts to change the culture" don't work first.
Medical professionals should develop a system in which once men reached 50, they should be serviced, like cars, Professor McDonald said.“I wouldn’t want to put men in jail and I wouldn’t rush into compulsory check-ups.
Not yet, anyway.
“Before we get to the compulsory stage, we should try to make cultural changes.”
One very important cultural change could be for governments and medical authorities, and pharmaceutical companies, to stop scaring the hell out of people with endless shock-and-fear based advertising blitzes, parading endless scenarios of how likely it is that anyone over the age of 20 is going to develop chronic or terminal illnesses.
Eating healthy, getting regular exercise, enjoying close circles of friends and family, working the brain and the imagination and encouraging an optimistic, positive mind always makes for a vastly healthier society, anywhere in the world.The first "cultural change" that needs to be made is to stop trying to convince every person over 50 that it is only a matter of time before they develop cancer.
