The Health Crisis Killing Manly Men

Compared to women, Mahalik finds, guys are less likely to wear sunscreen, take their pills, accept bed rest, administer self-exams, develop a network of emotional support, mix in some healthy food, or exercise safely. Alternatively, he is vastly more likely to snuff himself out by smoking and drinking, drinking and driving, drugging and sexing, committing suicide or getting killed, or dying in virtually every conceivable way except childbirth. The reason for all this "stupid stuff," says Mahalik, is men "don't want to be seen as pussies or wimps."

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Near the end of the segment on the NPR show that couldn't find a single man to talk seriously about his health, one of the expert guests, a colleague of Dr. Hines' at Clark, told the story of a construction worker who accidentally shot himself with a nail gun. Rather than run for help after he sent a reverse-barbed spike through his palm, the man sat down and calmly yanked it out, as other workers looked on. "He's the man," one later explained, and that kind of admiration is to die for.