Men Find Health Benefits with Acupuncture
By Carrie Elizabeth Sklar, Pacific College Media

While Father's Day and National Men's Health Week (June 14-20, 2004) makes us think about how much we love the men in our lives, recent studies show that men's health has been steadily declining. Acupuncture, however, may help many of the common ailments that men face.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 190,000 more men are diagnosed with a cancer than women each year, and cancer kills men 18 percent more often than women.

Furthermore, 4.4 million men in the United States have already had a heart attack, and men between the ages 29-44 have a 41 times higher chance of having a heart attack than women. Other health problems that are common to men include high blood pressure, prostate disorders, diabetes, smoking, and obesity.

Acupuncture has been cited by the World Health Organization to treat over 43 conditions, including those previously mentioned. Using acupuncture to treat health problems of concern to men has been growing in popularity; a Kaiser study conducted in 1996 found that 57.2 percent of primary care physicians in Northern California used or recommended acupuncture in the previous year. And according to the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, nearly one out of every 10 adults in the United States has tried acupuncture.