According to the USDA, men ages 31 to 50 need to eat 350 percent more dark green vegetables and 150 percent more fruit per day than they currently do in order to meet federal dietary guidelines.

Ideally, more fruits and veggies are the answer, but in today’s stop-and-go society, this is most likely not the reality.
That’s where vitamin supplements come in. But how do you know which vitamins to take and whether they are safe? Is there such a thing as too many vitamins?

Though consulting a doctor is always your best bet, we recently spoke with some experts and compiled this list of tips on taking vitamins in the healthiest, most effective way.

What Basic Vitamins Should Men Be Taking?
Nutritionist Laura Cipullo recommended a basic daily multivitamin to help compensate for the vitamins and minerals that are not being obtained from a regular diet.

“Start with a simple, straightforward vitamin that you would take with breakfast or with food to make sure you’re meeting all of your micronutrient needs,” she said.

Cipullo, a registered dietician and certified diabetes educator who maintains her private practice, Laura Cipullo Whole Nutrition Services, in the Union Square area, said checking the label is a good idea to assure you are not taking in too many vitamins.

“It does not need to be a mega dosage,” she said. “It just needs to say that it has 100 percent of the daily requirements. Something like 5,000 percent is way too much.”

In addition to a multivitamin, Cipullo suggested omega-3 fatty acid supplements for men who consume little to no fish throughout the week. Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and may help lower the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis. They may also assist in memory and brain performance.
Cipullo said vitamin D supplements may also be a good idea, as many men are deficient in that area. If a man is allergic to or does not consume many dairy products, calcium supplements should also be taken.

What Happens If Men Take Too Many Vitamins?
There can certainly be too much of a good thing, including vitamins.
“More isn’t better,” said Nicolette Pace, a registered, certified dietitian and nutritionist based in New York City. “Vitamins interact with metabolic processes and when there’s too much in the body, it can cause problems.”
For example, an excess of vitamin A can cause damage to the liver, while too much of vitamin B6 can cause permanent neurological damage.

Other side effects of too many vitamins can include constipation, confusion, weakness and loss of appetite.
“It’s definitely a word of caution,” said Pace, who founded and operates the nutrition company NutriSource Inc. “You don’t go for the super ultra-dose of vitamins and expect everything to work perfectly.”

Do Certain Vitamins Help with Specific Health Concerns?
For men trying to lose weight, Pace suggested taking a balanced multivitamin.

“Many nutrients are often knocked out of the diet when someone is trying to lose weight, so as a general rule, it’s best to take a multivitamin while dieting,” she said.

In contrast, creatine, thiamine and zinc may help men who are looking to gain weight.

Vitamins may also aid in treating infertility. Smoking, drinking alcohol and a poor diet can all influence infertility, and Pace recommended looking at those factors before turning to supplements. However, she noted that research shows vitamins C and E, as well as the mineral selenium, help increase fertility.

“Studies of men taking these vitamin supplements showed improvement in the movement of the sperm and resulted in higher pregnancy rates,” she said.

What Should Men Look Out for on Labels?
As with food, consumers should also read the list of ingredients on vitamin bottles.

“You should always know what’s in your vitamins,” Cipullo said. “Maybe you’re picking up a multivitamin and you see the company has added in an herb that there hasn’t been much research on or you have an allergy to.”

Cipullo also noted that since many vitamins are coated, consumers should watch for ingredients they do not recognize.
“Preferably it’s just a list of the actual vitamins that are supposed to be in there, rather than a list of artificial colors and preservatives,” she said.

Bottom Line
Solely relying on vitamin supplements is never a good idea. “Food should always come first,” Cipullo said.
However, supplements are a healthy way to make up for what your diet is lacking.

It is also important to speak with a doctor about the vitamins you intend on taking and whether or not they will interact with any medication you are on.

Dr. Aaron Katz

If you ask my cousin Sonny, the only reason he is alive today is because of free bagels and a PSA test.

“Our local hospital was offering a free men’s prostate screening test, and afterward they served free coffee, bagels and donuts,” he said. “My friends and I would hang around, compare our numbers and socialize, so a group of us made this a yearly thing.”

Sonny’s numbers were always low, until one year when they weren’t. He followed up with his urologist for a biopsy and found that he had prostate cancer. He made the decision to have his prostate removed after discussing the options with his doctor and others, and has now been 13 years cancer-free.

One in six men in this country will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime; it is one of the most common causes of cancer in men. Prostate cancer is usually slow growing and initially remains confined to the prostate gland.

When I was in medical training, I knew a family practice doctor who was in great shape, was healthy, exercised regularly and died at the age of 45 of prostate cancer, leaving behind a young family. He had not had a screening test and his cancer advanced quickly, and he was dead within a few months.

Prostate cancer may not have signs or symptoms in the early stages. Cancer that is advanced may cause problems urinating, decreased force in the stream of urine, blood in the urine, blood in the semen, swelling in the legs, discomfort in the pelvic area and bone pain.

One of the ways to detect prostate cancer is through the combination of a rectal exam and a PSA test. PSAs, or prostate-specific antigens, appear in the blood in elevated amounts in the presence of cancer, so the blood test is used as a screening tool. However, the test has come under fire in the press and by certain organizations who feel that it is unnecessary because it produces some false positive results. These are common—only about one in four men who have a positive PSA test turns out to have prostate cancer. Things that can increase PSA levels are benign prostate enlargement, benign prostatic hyperplasia or prostate infection.

Dr. Aaron Katz, author of The Definitive Guide to Prostate Cancer, a board certified urologist and chairman of the department of urology at Winthrop University Medical Center, said, “We are detecting a lot more prostate cancer because of the PSA screening. The issue is that we are detecting a lot of cancers that probably don’t need to be treated, and men are still undergoing surgery and radiation; unfortunately, some of the men do wind up with side effects like erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.”

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force now recommends against PSA screening, because “they felt that PSA screening tests did not save enough lives to make it worthwhile and the cost to society was high,” Katz said.

He disagrees with the findings and feels that without the test, we are missing an opportunity to find cancer early on.
“The doctors who sit on that task force—none of them are urologists, none of them are even cancer specialists,” Katz said. “They are looking at a couple of flawed studies and making recommendations. The head of the task force is a pediatrician from Texas.”

The Mayo Clinic recommends offering PSA screening and rectal exams to men age 50-75 years and to men 45-75 years with a positive family history of prostate cancer.

Katz recommends “diet, exercise and supplements to try to prevent men who have early stage prostate cancer from going on to treatment. We recommend men eliminate red meat and fried food, get on pomegranate extract pills, anti-inflammatory herbals, fish oils and lycopene pills and do aerobic exercise. This is a very successful program.

“Men need to get screened for prostate cancer by the age of 50,” he continued. “I think men need to be informed about the result and what it means. Men need to take on a more active holistic life style to prevent prostate cancer. You need to take care of your body.”

By Keysha Whitaker

While many men are opting for the burly and bearded look these days, the sultry summer months may mean that some will opt to manage their unwanted body hair. But deciding between the various techniques—including creams, shaving, waxing, electrolysis and lasers—can appear intimidating. Luckily the city offers just about any option one can imagine.

“Men are getting more comfortable [with hair removal], and the most popular area for men to want hair removal is the back and shoulder,” said Nicolas Cornuot, general manager of Nickel (pronounced Nee-kale), a men’s spa in the West Village. “For many years it was taboo and feminine, now it’s metrosexual.” He said bikini lines and Brazilians are fair game, too.

Eyebrow shaping is also growing in popularity among men. A representative of the Berenice Electrolysis and Beauty Center on East 61st Street explained that “young boys don’t want the unibrows. They want their sideburns trimmed or the back of the neck done so it’s smooth.” The Upper East Side location has been specializing in hair removal for 30 years. According to the representative, 20 percent of Berenice’s clientele are men between the ages of 13 to 70.

The two most advanced hair techniques—which produce the most drastic reduction in, and in some cases stop, hair growth—are electrolysis and laser removal. Electrolysis uses a probe that is inserted into the hair follicle and delivers an electrical current to kill the root.

“A laser uses light energy that is converted into heat energy,” explained Andrea Young, owner of Beam Laser Spa on Broadway near Columbus Circle. “The heat penetrates the follicle and disables it by heating it to death.” Young said 30 percent of Beam’s clients are male. “The most popular area is the back. As men age, they get new hair growth, especially on their back,” said Young. “They find that a laser is most effective.”

Although everyone’s body reacts to treatments in different ways, most agree that laser hair removal is fastest. “Years ago, if people wanted to do their leg, it could take 10 years [with electrolysis],” explained the rep from Berenice. “You have to catch the hair at the growth cycle otherwise you’re not going to be finished when you’d like to.” Even though electrolysis requires more sessions, Berenice’s clients continue to request it in strong numbers.

Laszlo Friedman, owner of Le Cachet Day Spa on East 30th Street (between Park and Madison avenues), is not a fan of electrolysis. “We stopped doing it because it introduces foreign electric currents in the body,” explained Friedman. “Electrolysis is history, that’s very ineffective; [with lasers] we are much faster.”

Young said she still sees a value in electrolysis since, in her estimation, laser hair removal works better on hair with dark pigmentation. “Blond hair is invisible to the laser, and red hair doesn’t work that well either.”

Since the laser targets melanin, men with darker skin complexions need specialized treatments. All three spas noted the distinction in serving men of color. Beam Laser Spa uses a Candela Laser that houses two lasers in one, explained Young. “The Alexandrite laser treats fair Caucasian skin, while the Yag laser is necessary to treat clients with olive-skin tones to dark skin tones,” said Young.

Some men even opt for laser treatment to banish pubic hair. Friedman said it’s a delicate procedure for technicians. “You have to be cautious and move the testicles aside or run the risk of making men infertile,” explained Friedman, who has four licensed technicians at Le Cachet. “We can always control how deep the laser beams are going.”

While pain is relative to the individual, most experts agree that electrolysis is more painful than laser hair removal, which has been compared to the sensation of a rubber band snapping the skin, but both are better choices than waxing if a man is concerned about avoiding ingrown hairs and dramatically reducing hair growth.

Friedman said he calls his technique “painless laser hair removal” because “we use a special cooling system that cools the surface of the area where you do the laser hair removal. By cooling the area you don’t really feel [pain].”

For those who opt for wax, organic waxes are best for sensitive skin: Nickel offers a tea-tree based wax and Le Cachet offers, among others, a cucumber-based wax for men.

Laser or electrolysis performed by unskilled technicians can result in scars, skin discoloration and burns. As with any medical procedure, potential clients should research the facility.

Troy Goodwin, an aesthetician at Nickel and a West Village resident, admitted that he keeps his own buttocks and groin area trimmed. According to him, men may be removing hair in greater numbers, but they’re not removing as much of it. “The whole completely hairless craze that was popular five years ago is dying off,” he said.

By Rochana Rapkins

Each year, some 9.2 million American men are afflicted with coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death for men in the United States. Heart attacks afflict about 5 percent of the male population annually, double the rate for women. The average life expectancy of the American male has increased since 1990, but is still five years less than that for women. These findings suggest the need for better preventative care and regular doctor visits. Yet many men cannot be coaxed to make an appointment.

According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, while 70 percent of women had at least one doctor’s visit in a 12-month period, only half the male population in the U.S. saw a doctor in the same period.

“It’s the John Wayne stereotypical masculinity,” said Rutgers University sociology professor Kristen Springer. “There is the stereotype that real men don’t get sick. So for men to go to the doctor when it’s not life or death is akin to admitting you’re not a real man. It’s the fear of looking emasculated by getting help.”

In a recent study, Springer’s team evaluated the beliefs in traditional masculine ideals of 1,000 middle-aged men, and compared the results against how often the subjects sought out preventative care. Men who scored high on the “macho” scale—which was determined by asking questions such as whether it is acceptable for men to show emotions—were almost 50 percent less likely to see a doctor for preventative care. Springer theorizes that this is one explanation for why men live shorter lives, even as they bring home bigger paychecks that should guarantee access to quality food and healthcare.

Yet regular checkups and screenings may hold the key for detecting disease, especially later in life. Although not all healthcare experts recommend annual physicals for younger men, men aged 40 and older are advised to see their primary care provider annually. All men should have their blood pressure checked on a regular basis and have cholesterol checks at least once every five years.

Dr. David Watson, an internist at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, cautions against a culture of looking to tests, rather than lifestyle choices, to guard against preventable disease.

“Both physicians and patients have a strong affinity for testing,” he said. “I think in this country we have to be careful in remembering that these tests are not perfect. I would not recommend a stress test, for example, for a 40-year-old. There is no benefit, and it could yield a false positive.”

Instead, healthcare experts recommend that men and women alike watch their diet and salt intake, avoid excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption, and exercise regularly.

Following the same logic, the American Heart Association no longer recommends routine prostate screenings for men, which are conducted through prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests or digital rectal exams.

“The PSA tests can be wrong about 50 percent of the time,” said Watson. “Once we get an elevated PSA, we are somewhat committed to doing biopsies. So we try to have that conversation with our patients before we draw blood. It’s an individual decision and there is no right and wrong.”

While some doctors suggest regular self-exams for testicular cancer, there is little scientific evidence to suggest that these exams are effective. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends against routine screening for testicular cancer in asymptomatic males. But screening for colon cancer—the second most deadly cancer for both men and women—is recommended beginning at age 50.

Although men are at a slightly higher risk for certain forms of skin cancer, men are less likely to use sunscreen.

“Men only use 15 percent of the sunscreen sold,” said Rochlen. “It’s a good metaphor. Men are not looking to protect themselves. They are socialized not to ask for help, and to be able to tough it out.”

In the realm of mental health, men are also less likely to seek out help. In a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Men’s Health, Rochlen found that the male focus group participants considered seeking help for depression—and the state of depression itself—at odds with their perceptions of masculinity.

“Men are skeptical of the efficacy of treatment,” said Rochlen. “In therapy you have to be expressive and vulnerable, but men often struggle with tapping into their inner life.”

Rather than trying to rewire men’s minds, Rochlen is joining other health care innovators in investigating new methods—such as coaching—to deliver mental health treatment to men.

Similar efforts are underway in New York City. Thanks to a $20 million private bequest, the Iris Cantor Men’s Health Center is currently under development at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, and tentatively slated to open in 2012.

Neurologist Steven Kaplan, who will head the new facility, plans to specifically market the center to men. He finds that men tend to seek out medical health later in life due to sexual and prostate issues.

“Men think in their pelvic region, or in their knees. They are weekend warriors, and that is the portal to get them in,” explained Kaplan. “Unfortunately, medicine has become siloed. I don’t believe a person is just a prostate or a heart. Everything is connected.”

Kaplan envisions his center will be among the early adopters of a holistic and integrated approach to healthcare management. Although he is currently chief of the Institute of Bladder and Prostate Health at the hospital, he hesitates to name himself as the future director of the new center. Rather, he sees his role as that of a “maître d’” who provides advice, rather than issues orders.

“We want people to understand they control their lives,” he said, “It’s much more than just taking a pill.”

Rutgers professor Kristen Springer, who is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar at Columbia University, theorizes that the issue of control is at the heart of the matter of why men often neglect their health. Men who subscribe to traditional masculine ideals are likely to view illness as a weakness. They may not like taking advice from other authority figures—including doctors. For example, if a man is clad only in a paper-thin hospital gown and subject to what some men might consider the indignity of a rectal exam, he may feel that he is in a compromised position. The easy solution is to avoid the doctor altogether.

“I don’t see that changing until we can get rid of the masculine ideal,” said Springer. Asked whether that was possible, she laughed. “My utopian answer would be sure—but it would require the wiping out of gender.”

Armin Brott, author of the Blueprint for Men’s Health, agrees that men are afraid to go to the doctor once routine visits become necessary in their forties. “It all comes down to the prostate exam,” he said. “There is just something about it men don’t want to deal with. They are either uncomfortable, or afraid that someone will think they are homosexual.”

Fears aside, there is some scientific evidence that suggests bachelors, in particular, should take care to book that doctor’s appointment. Adjusting for other factors such as age, obesity and socio-economic status, a large-scale study presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference this year found that single men had a 64 percent higher risk of fatal stroke than did married men. But that doesn’t mean that steely New York bachelors should give away their heart to save their heart. Turns out the same study found that unhappily married men are also twice as likely to die from a stroke. While psychological and emotional wellbeing is important, experts agree that diet and exercise are the key factors in reducing the risk of preventable diseases.

At the new Iris Cantor Men’s Health Center, Dr. Kaplan hopes that men who come in the door hoping to improve their prostate health or sexual function, will learn to give their whole bodies an overhaul as well. “Men have to realize—just as the cars they love need a 30,000 mile overhaul, so do they.”