Men's Health: Tips to Live By
Sept. 22 -- Boil the Men’s Health philosophy down to a few words and it’s this: We don’t want you to die.
That’s why we’ve put together this list of some of the ways you can die along with the best ways to avoid every one of them.
Car Accident Deaths Per Year: 41,000
If the media treated the AAA like the NRA, you’d hear this little mantra more and more: Cars don’t kill people. People with cars kill people.
How to avoid dying: You can cut your risk by wearing a seat belt (lowers your risk by 45 percent) and having an airbag (in conjunction with a seat belt, reduces your risk by 56 percent). And since the majority of fatal crashes take place at night, stay home on Saturdays, when 18 percent of all deadly collisions happen — especially in Montana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, which have the highest rate of traffic deaths per vehicle mile. Tuesday is the safest day, at 12 percent.
One more thing: Let those people go. Eleven percent of fatal accidents happen when someone is too stubborn to yield.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases Deaths Per Year: 112,584
They’re the number 5 killer of men … but what the hell are they? A fancy-pants term for good old-fashioned emphysema and bronchitis.
How to avoid dying: You’ve stopped smoking. You’ve quit your coal-mining gig. You put away your Fun with Asbestos kit. So what else can you do to protect your lungs? Wear a dust mask when you’re tearing apart your house. That will prevent toxic junk from entering your chest.
Colon Cancer Deaths Per Year: 47,700
Death from down under. You knew about the checkup, but you were busy. And dressed.
How to avoid dying: Drink milk every day — or consider a 300 milligram calcium supplement. Calcium has been shown to decrease the recurrence of precancerous polyps, says Dr. Robert Beart, chief of colorectal surgery at the University of Southern California.