Gentry's Journey
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Gentry's Journey
Men's Health: A Survival Guide
The stark reality hits like a punch to the gut: Black men in America suffer worse health outcomes than any other demographic group. But why? In this powerful conversation with certified family nurse practitioner Isaiah Sankey, we dig beneath the statistics to uncover the complex interplay between personal choices, systemic barriers, and cultural norms that create this crisis.
Sankey, who also serves as president of the Metro Montgomery branch of the NAACP, brings both clinical expertise and community perspective as he explains how most Black men find themselves trapped in a cycle of "health repair" rather than practicing "health maintenance." The difference? Waiting until symptoms become unbearable versus engaging in preventative care that could save lives.
Heart disease remains the leading killer of men across all demographics, responsible for nearly a quarter of male deaths. For Black men specifically, the deadly lineup includes heart disease, cancer (particularly prostate), unintentional injuries, homicide, stroke, and diabetes. What makes these statistics particularly tragic is that many of these conditions are preventable or manageable with proper screening and early intervention.
"Don't be too religious," Sankey cautions with gentle humor, addressing the tendency to pray about health problems without taking practical action. "The Lord will heal you by sending you to a good doctor." This balanced perspective weaves throughout our conversation as Sankey offers practical, accessible solutions: integrating regular exercise (even something as simple as walking your dog), improving dietary choices, staying properly hydrated, and most importantly – getting regular check-ups and screenings.
Perhaps most powerful is Sankey's call for greater openness about health concerns. Cultural norms around masculinity often discourage men from acknowledging health symptoms or seeking help. Women play critical roles too – Sankey shares how his wife's attentiveness to subtle changes in his urinary function prompted him to seek medical attention.
This Father's Day, consider a different kind of gift. "Forget about that tie," Sankey suggests. "He's not going to wear it anyway." Instead, start a conversation about health that could literally save a life. Subscribe now for more empowering conversations that challenge conventional thinking about health, equity, and what it means to truly take care of ourselves and our communities.
Hello everyone. I'm Carolyn Coleman. Welcome to Gentry's Journey. This is Men's Health Month and we have a subject matter expert, mr Isaiah Sankey. Now he's going to tell you all about himself. I want to welcome you all again to Gentry's Journey and women, you know, help our men out. You know, by explaining some things to them, you'll probably be more comfortable after this presentation and men take it seriously what this is coming from. Another man and he can explain himself and teach you about Men's Health Month and how to properly care for yourself. Isaiah, are you ready?
Speaker 2:Yes, good evening to each of you and thank you, ms Coleman, for the privilege of being on with the audience this evening. I am Isaiah Sankey. I am a certified family nurse practitioner. I graduated from Troy University School of Nursing. You may hear my dog in the background. I'm not sure why he decided to bark when I start talking, but in any event, it's a pleasure to be with you all. As I was saying, I graduated from Troy University School of Nursing, I have a Master of Science in Nursing and I am a certified family nurse practitioner.
Speaker 2:I also have the privilege of serving here in Montgomery as the president of the Metro Montgomery branch of the NAACP, and I've been in that role for about six months now. And I decided and I think this is important each president coming into the role has an opportunity to decide what his or her platform is going to be, and so, having a background in health care, I have chose as my platform, at least for the next two years during my tenure as president of the Metro Montgomery branch of the NAACP is building a legacy of health, building a legacy of health here in Montgomery County, and part of that entails trying to identify means or approaches, or to interventions, rather regarding how do we address the shortage of healthcare providers. And so I'm excited that, through my leadership and the support of my branch members, we've been able to create what we call the Legacy of Health Program, whereby we have identified students in high school and we've created an environment, a very intensive interactive environment, to expose them to the feel of health care, the field of health care, and so we'll be. We partnered with Baptist and Faulkner School of Health Sciences, karristar Behavioral Health, troy University School of Nursing and Troy University, where we're holding our class downtown at the Rosa Parks Museum with these young people, and we've created a dynamic environment to expose them to the field of health care so they might consider, after they have gotten the exposure, they might consider choosing a career in health care and thereby helping to reduce some of the at least address the shortage of health care providers. So I just wanted to get that out there because I'm excited about that care provider. So I just wanted to get that out there because I'm excited about that. And so I'm also a father, married for over 40 years, have two grown sons, five grandchildren, and just love the feel of health care. I also have the privilege of serving as the county commissioner. I represent County Commission District 4 here in Montgomery County and I'm into my third term in that capacity, and so healthcare, government policies, decision making, all of that is interrelated. So I'm just excited to be here with you all to talk about Men Health Month.
Speaker 2:June is Men Health Month all over this country and there's so much that we can talk about as it relates to men health. And, as Ms Coleman said, we need the women, we need you all, we need the sisters and the wives, the grandmamas and the aunties to really really engage with us, because sometimes we're reluctant to talk about our health, we're reluctant to seek the medical attention that we need and consequently reluctant to seek the medical attention that we need and consequently we suffer unnecessarily from some treatable, some curable diseases If we would only just begin to open up and talk about these things and have the family members get involved. Don't be afraid to talk to your wife about things that's related to your health and so forth, and I'll just go ahead and share this. This may sound a little personal, but I'm glad when my wife is observing me or listening to me in the bathroom she say your urine stream doesn't sound as strong as it used to sound, hitting the water. And so you know, even though it may be a little embarrassing or being a bit intimidating, you know, you say, okay, she noticed that that urine stream is getting a little weak, so I'm glad that she's paying attention to me, and so those types of things. If you witness that, if you notice something about your partner, you know, your spouse, your father, your uncle or whatever it is, you know that you may be observing. Don't just, I wonder what's wrong with him? Begin to engage in a conversation, so that we might be more cognizant and aware that you all are looking and perhaps we might be more inclined to seek the medical attention that we really need. So, having said that, if you all are ready, I have a slide presentation and, of course, interrupt me anytime you get ready, and if I hear you, I will certainly stop talking and try to listen to comments, your concerns, or ask any answer, rather, or respond to any question that you may have. And so it's June.
Speaker 2:June is Men Health Month, and so we say, well, that being the case, then what are the next steps? If it's Men Health Month, then do we just? What are we doing? We go out to party, we're going to celebrate, or what are we really going to do? What are the next steps, since we all know now that it's June that's June, rather, it's Men Health Month and where do we go from here?
Speaker 2:Ok, and so we know that that black men's state of health oftentimes is health repair versus health maintenance. Now, what do we mean about that? What we mean about that instead of going in on a regular basis health promotion, disease prevention that's what we learn as nurse practitioners you got to actually take care of yourself before you get into trouble with your health, and so a lot of times we're into health repair. You know what can we say? Well, now we're short of breath. You know we hadn't been going in to get our checkups and so forth, and now we're short of breath and we're wondering what in the world is going on. If it's heart failure, if it's some respiratory ailment due to breathing pollutants in the air, maybe it's an environment where we work at and we have not been getting our annual chest x-rays and maybe pulmonary function studies, and so now we can't breathe. So now we're in a state of health repair. We got to do something right away versus health maintenance, and we have been getting those annual checks up and those checkups, getting the colonoscopy, getting the PSAs and so forth. You know, taking care of those things. If we work in an environment you know that might have some toxins and so forth that we're breathing every day, you know. Are we attending to that on a regular basis so that we can catch these things before they get out of hand, or are we always in a state of health repair where we're just trying to fix stuff after it's gotten out of hand? And so oftentimes we find ourselves in a state of health repair versus health maintenance as black men. And so we have got to do better. And so hopefully by the end of this discussion, and so hopefully by the end of this discussion, we would have been inspired to do a little bit better.
Speaker 2:And as I said, now, what are we doing with June being Men Health Month and, I think, juneteenth coming up? You know, that's the so-called emancipation for African-Americans Juneteenth. Emancipation for African Americans, juneteenth. We didn't find out until two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The people, the slaves in Texas, found out that they were free when General Granger rode in on his horse to announce that we had been free some two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. So what do we do about that? Are we just going to get in the park and have a party on Juneteenth and celebrate and so forth? Or are we going to mix some education with the celebration? And that's what we need to do. We need to be familiar, not just with Juneteenth overall, but what does it mean to be a citizen? What does the Constitution say about rights and privileges and so forth that we enjoy? And how do we begin to talk about some of the health issues during that time? That would be a good time to talk about men health issues, particularly African-American men. While we're celebrating, we need to also be educating the population on how to better care for ourselves, and hopefully you all are in agreement with that. Don't just celebrate, educate, and that's what I'm hoping to inspire.
Speaker 2:Okay, the leading causes of all death in men of all races males of all races. The leading cause of death in all men heart disease. The leading cause of death in all men heart disease. 24.3% of the deaths in men are related to heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer amongst men of all races. Number two is cancer and probably the leading cause in men is prostate cancer and certainly the fatality rate is greater in black men than white men. In unintentional injuries you might be talking about gunshot wounds or motor vehicle accidents 7.4% of the cause of death in men of all races unintentional injuries. And you know, with this increased gun violence, that can certainly present well, it has presented it's a national issue, actually in a very urgent matter. And then of course we have chronic lower respiratory diseases. Could come from smoking, could come from pollutants in the air that we breathe. Maybe occupational exposure could contribute to some of the chronic lower respiratory diseases that we suffer from. And that's the fourth leading cause of death in men of all races.
Speaker 2:Stroke is number five. You know the devastating effects of a stroke. If you've ever cared for an individual with a stroke, if you've ever cared for an individual with a stroke, you know they can be light, moderate or it can be very severe, where they are completely paralyzed and you have to. They're completely dependent upon others to care for them. And then there's Alzheimer's disease. It seems you know that is somewhat that's on the rise, I would say and you know how devastating Alzheimer's disease can be a progressive, relentless deterioration of one's mental capacity in terms of your ability to reason and so forth, and certainly that short-term memory is impacted more so than the long-term memory. If you've ever seen anybody with Alzheimer's disease, it can be very, very devastating and certainly very, very hard on the family members. You know your loved ones, someone you've been married to for 40, 50 years Now. They don't even recognize your face, you know, and so it can be very, very devastating and very trying for the family members, for those with Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 2:And suicide it's on the rise amongst African Americans for a number of reasons, but that's the eight leading cause of death in men of all races. And then we got influenza and pneumonia. And of course some of this may have come about because of the COVID pandemic. And so at number nine, currently we have influenza and pneumonia as the ninth leading cause of death in men of all races. And then you got chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. And of course we know about alcoholism and how that can certainly impact the health and the function of the liver. So there you have it Heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, alzheimer's disease, suicide, influenza and pneumonia. And rounding out, number 10 is chronic liver disease and cirrhosis the 10 leading causes of death in men of all races, and now Black men, a little bit different here, a little bit different. So now the 10 leading causes of death in Black men and you see, heart disease is still up there at number one. And then we have cancer, prostate cancer being number one in that category.
Speaker 2:Unintentional injuries we're talking about gunshot wounds. Motor vehicle accident, you know, riding without your seatbelts, weapons everywhere in today's society being used indiscriminately. You know, sad national, a national emergency gunshot wounds, homicide, again, you know, some of that comes from, of course, gunshot wounds and just not being able to control your anger, not, you know, being able to deescalate situations at the right time. Situations at the right time. Stroke, number five. And men, african-american men, diabetes, probably not a surprise, coming in at number six. Black men we're talking about chronic lower respiratory disease, number seven, kidney disease, number eight, septicemia, just infection from a number of causes.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you may not get the medical attention in time. You got, you know, staph auras or some of those other diseases, and so you may not get. You may not. You got. You know something wrong with your leg. It's swollen up. You know painful red. You ignore it. You know, maybe you got bit by. You bit by, maybe a brown recluse or something. Something happened. Maybe you're diabetic and you just didn't take care of that little sore before it got infected and now bacteria is running all through your body.
Speaker 2:Septicemia ninth in terms of the cause of death in black men. And then hypertension probably not a surprise. Probably surprised that it ranked number 10. And it could be a little higher. But maybe stroke and hypertension go hand in hand. And so high blood pressure high blood pressure is still the silent killer that we really really need to be more cognizant and do something about it. And I think part of that includes getting your annual checkups and so forth and participating in those health screenings at work and in the community, and then, of course, following up. It's just not enough just to participate, but of course you got to follow up, okay. And so let's talk a little bit about health equity. Okay, health equity and equity.
Speaker 2:I'm not talking about equality now. So in equality, you're talking about all things being equal, but in equity, I might need a little bit more than you need because I might be living in a less affluent zip code. We don't have the necessary things you know that we need. There's a lot of gunshots, the infrastructure is not being properly maintained. Maybe there's pollution in the air. You know there's gunshots all night long, and so you live in a more fluent neighborhood, perhaps. And so maybe you need a little bit less when it comes to the resources, because you're already up there, you know where you don't have to worry about breathing polluted air, gunshot wounds, distress, you're not living next door to abandoned buildings and so forth. And so when it comes to distributing the resources from local government and I say that as a county commission maybe my neighborhood needs a little bit more than your neighborhood needs because of equity, you know, not equality I've been left out. So maybe now it's time to make it up to me whether you believe in diversity, equity, inclusion or not.
Speaker 2:And regardless of what the state of Alabama says or the federal government says, it's important to address equity, particularly when it comes to health. So health equity is when everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible, and I don't see why anyone wouldn't argue with that. I just can't see why anyone wouldn't argue with that. Everyone ought to have the opportunity to be as healthy as possible, and it is the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. Now, some people may not believe in that that all of us have the opportunity to be as healthy as possible. We all have the opportunity to have nutritious food, vegetables and fruits and other things available at the market where we shop. It ought to be that. It ought not to be where you have to get your grocery from the service station or the convenience store. That's health equity having those things available to us and so I don't see why anyone would want to argue with that. Health equity is something all of us ought to be advocating for our fellow citizens, because when all of us are healthy left money has to be spent on emergency care, and so why would anyone argue with that? But, in any event, you know politics creeps in and you know we have to address those issues as well.
Speaker 2:Health disparities and there are health disparities amongst particularly amongst people of color on the lowest socioeconomic scale, those historically disadvantaged and underserved communities. You know I can speak for myself. I lived in some of those communities, and so health disparities do exist. Health disparities are differences in health outcomes and their causes among a group of people. So we have differences in outcomes because sometimes we're not getting the proper care we need. Sometimes we can't afford to go to the doctor, we don't have adequate insurance. Sometimes it's the choice between medicine and food. All of those things. Those socioeconomic conditions impact health outcomes, and they impact certain groups more than they do others, and so we need to be talking about health disparities.
Speaker 2:It shouldn't be a conversation that we shy away from, I don't care who's in the room. We ought to be able to address health disparities, and not only that, but we ought to have a plan of action in terms of what we do. What are we going to do? And all of us have a role to play as citizens. Yeah, calling those elected officials and making sure that they are accountable when it comes to allocation of resources, when engaged, and to demand more of the resources, a more equitable distribution of the resources. Okay, so much for the politics and the policy and the decision-making.
Speaker 2:Now let me just say this Decisions that are made in this country, in your state, in your city, in your county, somebody decides what's going to happen. Who's going to get the paved streets? Are the houses going to remain boarded up and abandoned? In your neighborhood, what quality of education are our children going to have? Where are the grocery stores? Where are they going to be located? Where are they going to put the industry that pollutes the environment? Okay, so what's going on with that?
Speaker 2:So we all have a role to play and it's our civic duty to be engaged in policy and decision making, because everything that happens in this country except for a tornado or a hurricane, you know act of God somebody decides what is going to happen, and it may not always be in your best interest, so we must stay engaged. Okay, black men in the United States suffer worse health than any other racial group in America, with the lowest life expectancy and the highest death rate from specific causes, compared to both men and women of other racial and ethnic groups. And that's from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, that data comes from them. That data comes from them. We suffer worse health outcomes than any other racial group in.
Speaker 2:America, make you feel like, well, I'll leave that alone, but in any event, it causes some concern. It causes some concern. Make you feel like you're not too far from slavery, yep, with those type of statistics, yeah, being reported by the Center for Disease Control. So we got a lot of work to do. Okay, a lot of work to do, key determinants of health, religiosity. So sometimes we get so religious right, we think, well, we know that God is able to heal. He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly. Above all, that we can actually think based upon the power of faith that work within us. And your faith has to be strong. I'm a man of faith, but if you have been nausea, vomiting, for three or four days you got to pray about it, but then you got to go see your doctor you need to ask the Lord to guide you to a healthcare provider that's competent enough to take care of you and that's going to listen to your concern.
Speaker 2:We can be too religious, sometimes, saying the Lord going to heal us. I know he's going to heal me and he will by sending you to a good doctor. That's how you act, you know sometimes. Sometimes we speak our spirituality, we're saying you know that, hey, I just, you know, I'm just going to trust, I'm just going to trust and believe. You know when you should be up putting on your clothes to try to go see that doctor after you get through reading your Bible and praying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and of course, stress. We all know how stress can impact you, you know. I mean you have headaches and all kind of stuff. Mental, emotional, well-being being impacted just by stress. Your spouse worrying you, your children worrying you, your boss worrying you. You just, sometimes you just worry, you don't know why you worry. Stress can certainly impact the health. One of the key determinants of health is stress.
Speaker 2:Incarceration you know a lot of our african-american men are incarcerated. Uh, I mean, you know you visit some of these federal prison, these law. You got six, seven, eight hundred black men all behind bars and you see the talent, all the talent pool is locked up. Incarceration is, you know, when you're living in them crowded conditions. You know you're spreading all type of illnesses and so forth and all on that, but you're probably not getting the quality. You're not getting the quality of care that you need, just getting basic, basic Racism and segregation. Well, we don't have to talk too much about that. We know racism can certainly lead to poor health outcomes.
Speaker 2:Segregation, where you're not in the affluent community where all the health clinics are. You could walk to a health clinic in some of the communities and the other communities you live in. First of all, you got to have a car. You don't have adequate transportation. Public transportation Don't get you to your doctor's office because your doctor way on the other side of town. So you know the segregation plays a big role in terms of our access, access to health care. You know we got to catch the bus. You know, go, maybe get a transfer and catch another bus to get to a good doctor.
Speaker 2:Right Then smoking, you know. Now some of this stuff lifestyle modifications well, you know, stress, racism. You know maybe we can't control that, at least not to the degree that it needs to be, but smoking we can control that Diet, we can control that. So watch what you eat More fresh fruits and vegetables, stay away from a lot of fried greasy food that have a high fat content. And I don't know why you got to smoke. I don't understand that anyway, but it's addictive. Nicotine is a drug, so you need to try to find some way to get off it if you can. If you're smoking, and sometimes we just don't have the insurance. You know that's a key determinant. I remember when I didn't have no insurance, lord, my first child was born and I'm without insurance. Got a big old hospital bill, lord, and I think they had to take me to court or something. But in any event, you know you can do what you got to do.
Speaker 2:Education Sometimes you just don't know your lack of education. You know the lower education level you have, the worse your health outcomes are going to be, and that just stands to reason. If you're not reading about your health, you're not conscious. Your consciousness when it comes to health and nobody's in your house is talking about health, they're talking about everything but health, because sometimes it's just a lower education level and then poverty, poverty, is just a rake habit on. You know, if you're just struggling every day, you ain't got time to really be thinking about your health. You're habit on. You know, if you you're just struggling every day, you ain't got time to really be thinking about your health. You're trying to figure how you're going to live, or even if you want to live, for that matter. And so you know key determinants of health that religiosity, spirituality, stress, incarceration, racism and segregation, smoking, but you can do something about that and you'll die. You can do something about that too, but based upon your income, sometimes you know you're just choosing the wrong stuff because it's cheap. You, you know, and you're trying to stress that dollar, so I can understand that. And then lack of insurance, and then your educational level sometimes impacts your health outcome, and then, of course, poverty is always a factor when it comes to determinants of health.
Speaker 2:Okay, heart disease. These are some things we need to be dealing with. You know, we all say heart disease was the leading cause of health. And then we can have different type of heart disease congenital heart disease You're born with that and periodical heart disease might come about, you know, in the childhood, and that can be devastating. Might find out that you have all these different things, god forbid transposition of the great vessels and you might have a leaky valve, maybe a foramen ovale, where the hole didn't close up, so you got blood communicating between the lungs and the heart before it gets, you know, before it picks up the oxygen from the lungs, and so all those things can be very devastating in terms of your health. And then hypertension, heart disease, of course, from the lungs, and so all those things can be very devastating in terms of your health. And then hypertension, heart disease. Of course, as we said, it has a. This is one of the leading cause 10 leading cause of death in men.
Speaker 2:Then you got arrhythmias, you know tachycardia, atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is your regular rhythm of the atrium of the heart, the top portion of the heart, and it can cause blood clots. Then you got coronary or artery disease. You've maybe experienced some chest pain where the arteries around the heart you see those arteries on the heart they feed the heart muscle and they can become blocked. And then you start having chest pain. They have to go in and do a coronary artery bypass grafting where they are trying to get past the blockage in the heart. Because if you don't have adequate blood flow to the heart, you're going to know it one day when you start having the chest pain, that crushing pressure on your chest. And then, of course, congestive heart failure, where the heart is not pumping efficiently and the blood is backing up into the lungs, and that is certainly something heart disease, leading cause of death. And those are different type of heart disease, heart ailments that we sometimes have to contend with.
Speaker 2:Ok, and so what are we going to do? We're going to try to modify our lifestyle. I told you diet is we can control that to a certain degree. You know, I realize, like I say, sometimes you got low income. You just got to make that dollar stretch as far as you can, so you're going to eat the cheap food. Low income, you just got to make that dollar stretch as far as you can, so you're going to eat the cheap food, and sometimes that can be a problem. But we can buy some beans. We grew up on beans. I didn't know that beans were a source of protein when I was little. All I know that's all we had to eat. And thank God that my mom would cook them beans, because then it gave me some muscle, helped develop my muscles, you know, yeah, instead of feeding me sugar. So praise God for that.
Speaker 2:And so diet, exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, ladies and gentlemen, maybe one ounce a day. If you're going to drink it all you know, don't take one and you just have to have another one. So leave that alcohol alone, really, for the most part. Weight reduction Okay, you can get five to 20 millimeters of mercury, decreasing your blood pressure with each 10 kilograms of weight loss, and I believe 2.2 pounds is one kilogram, and so you lose about maybe five pounds or so. But if you lose about 10% of your current body weight, you can increase your overall body function by 20 to 30%. So look at this a low sodium diet, a diet that's high in potassium, which you get bananas, oranges, avocados, tomatoes, you know, are rich in potassium. Okay, and of course you want to be careful about increased potassium in your diet if you have kidney disease and of course you have to discuss that with your health care provider. Ok, so just take a good look at those lifestyle modifications.
Speaker 2:A lot of time we bring the trouble on ourselves. We want to eat, we want to smoke, we want to drink. We don't want to get exercise, we want to sit in the house watching that 20, I don't know. We got 50 inch screen television on the wall, flat screen. You got all kinds of stuff Next flick, and you're watching. Next flick, this flick, that flick, and so you know you're living, you're living, you know you feel like you learned the right to sit up there and eat that bowl of ice cream late at night. But don't get too carried away with your wealth and your success. Get out of that house and get you some exercise. Please, people, get you some exercise. Yep, because that money it may not be able to save you. You need to put some of that excessive drinking and smoking and eating that red meat Reward yourself. Every now and then, get you a steak, maybe every six months if you need it, but be careful about what you eat. Please, get you some exercise.
Speaker 2:Take your dog for a walk. Your dog want to go for a walk. He don't want to just sit there and look at you all day. Take the dog for a walk. Both of y'all can get some exercise. You'll feel better. Your dog going to feel better. Okay, maybe you should have left that dog where he was if you don't want to exercise. Now, I'm not talking about any of you all. I guess I'm talking to myself. So please forgive me, don't get mad with me. Don't get mad with me. I got a dog. I take him for a walk as often as I can. He loves it too. He jumps up in the morning. No, he going for a walk. Yeah, he just acts so bad. Just get too excited Like he would learn discipline. But I do take them for a walk and I enjoy it myself. Okay, stroke prevention All right, these are modified but rich factors.
Speaker 2:You can do something about this. You can take your blood pressure medication, you can try to get out of that air pollution, but it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And so you have to kind of get involved with your government, that your local government, the ADM, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. You know if pollution is a problem in your neighborhood, get organized, start to do something about it. You know, really you know you'd be surprised the impact you can have if you start speaking up about the conditions of your neighborhood. The air you breathe, you know the noise pollution, all those things. You have to have a plan of action as a citizen. It's your right, your duty, your responsibility. You need to begin to ask yourself what does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to be a citizen? And that means you get involved. And if you're leaving the place a little bit better than you found it, then you may be on your way to being a good citizen. Okay, Cigarette smoking you can control that.
Speaker 2:Diabetes, you can take your medicine and watch your diet, the high fat in your blood, dyslipidemia and so forth that causes problems, heart disease and so forth. These are the bad lipids Okay. Atrial fibrillation can be controlled with medication. Sickle cell disease Well, people live longer by staying hydrated and managing the pain, okay. And of course these are the things that I'm listening to can cause stroke, okay. And so you have to kind of modify these risk factors. All these things I'm talking about can lead to stroke. Postmenopausal hormone therapy can lead to stroke. Postmenopausal hormone therapy Okay. Depression can, I guess, lead to stroke and you want to prevent those.
Speaker 2:Diet and activity you know, low sodium diet. Increase your potassium intake if you don't have kidney disease, and watch your weight. Watch your weight, okay. Okay, the ideal body weight you take your current. Well, I won't say I do about the weight, but I want to talk about hydration. That's what I really want to talk about. You know you need more water and you take your current body weight and divide it by two. According to one of the doctors, doctors coin is seven pillars of health, and he said that if you take a current body weight divided by two, that's the number of ounces of water you need a day and a lot of time. We just not drink enough water, okay, and so please keep those things in mind.
Speaker 2:Secondary prevention If you want to prevent stroke, the anti-aggregants Plavix, coumadin, anticoagulants, blood pressure lowering medication. Stop smoking, get that cholesterol down. And sometimes you might need to. If you're going to the doctor and they're doing the right thing, they might. You know they're auscultating your neck, putting that stethoscope on your neck, listening to that carotid artery, they might find out you got blockage of the artery. You're having headaches, you're dizzy, you're about to pass out. All the time it could be your carotid artery from all that fat you've eaten over the years and smoking and so forth, and so you may need to do revascularization. They need to clean that plaque out of those main arteries leading up to your neck that carry blood supply to your brain and to your neck, that carry blood supply to your brain. And, of course, diet and exercise all very important preventive measures. You know things we can do. You're going to feel better when you get outdoors and start exercising, I promise you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, prostate cancer man. The second most common cause in cancer worldwide, second most common cancer in men worldwide and the fifth most common cause of cancer death in men that prostate. Get that PSA Now. A PSA is not necessarily predictive of cancer, but you need to get that PSA screened. You need to be screened because you can have a normal PSA and still have cancer and you can have a high PSA and not have cancer. And so talk with a good urologist. A lot of times, you know they just well. I better be careful how I say that you know, biopsy sometime may be necessary, but make sure you ask questions. It has to be the shared decision-making. Don't just let the healthcare provider you know tell you what you need to do. Talk to them, read for yourself, you know, be engaged in the decision-making when it comes to your healthcare provider.
Speaker 2:In the United States, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the second most common cause of cancer death. Okay, so you want to catch it before it gets outside of the prostate. That's why you need to get them psa done and and get those, uh, those screenings, uh, mri, the prostate, you know I think it's kind of somewhat diagnostic, uh, it's a definitive diagnosis when it comes to prostate cancer. And get on up there. Uh, if you don't, you know, not comfortable with your, with your local urologist, uh, I I've seen Dr Bivens up there in Birmingham and uh, matter of fact, he had a different opinion than my urologist in Montgomery. So, uh, I was grateful for a second opinion. So don't be scared to ask questions. Get your second opinion.
Speaker 2:You know, because the doctors are human like we are. They have the background, you know in terms of this. You know medical decision making, but you need to be helping your doctor, don't just, you know, take his word. You know, yeah, well, you can, but you know, just you need to. You need to be studying too, can, but you know, just you need to. You need to be studying too. You need to read Sometimes. You need to know as much as the doctor knows. So you better start reading and educate yourself. Okay, all right, so much for that.
Speaker 2:Signs and symptoms of of of cancer. Lower urinary tract symptoms you know. Cause now BPH, a benign prostatic hypertrophy. That's just an enlargement of the prostate gland. You get up at night. You're peeing five, six times a night. Your scream is not as strong as it used to be. You may not be emptying your bladder.
Speaker 2:You got to go back. You think you're done. You just got to go back right after you've been urinated. Then, of course, hematuria You've got blood. If you see the blood in your urine, you know something's wrong, please don't ignore it. Please, please, please. If you see blood in your urine, don't put it up, zip up your pants and say, oh Lord, I hope it go away. That's religiosity. Don't be doing that.
Speaker 2:Hematospermia, that's blood in your sperm. If you ejaculate and you see blood in your sperm, you better do something about it. Don't be trying hide that. That's hard to hide, though, ladies. That's gonna be hard to hide and I know y'all not gonna let them hide that. And that erectile dysfunction.
Speaker 2:Well, sometime, ladies, after a period of time, it's just a little. We have a little challenges. We have a little challenge. Sometimes we need a little help, a little medication, and sometimes we need just encouragement. So don't discourage us when that happens. Try to help us out. You know we already our manhood is being questioned. You know we already may be feeling a little inadequate. So help us out. Please. Don't take that as an opportunity to get back at it just because you're mad.
Speaker 2:What it's about? Something we did 15 years ago. Don't be talking about us like that now. And urinary retention you know you just sometimes that can be a problem. You have to go to the hospital and get a catheter put in your bladder because you can't pee, that's that muscle just don't relax and you can't urinate, and that can be very painful, uh, uh, gentlemen. So, ladies, we need your help in these areas now, don't, don't? You know? This is a time to help us. Don't be trying to make us feel bad because we did something 15 years ago and now you want to pay us back when you should have. Just we said we had gotten over that, uh and uh. So you know we got it over. Let's, let's leave it alone. Now we need your help, okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So, and these some symptoms of advanced prostate disease start losing weight. Oh, now, if you just start losing weight and you ain't had been to the doctor until you start losing weight, come on now. Don't do that. Don't do, please, don't wait till it get that bad. You ain't got no appetite. You're anemic, bone pain. You might have a pathological fracture where your bones just cracked and you no reason at all. You walking, you step out of bed. One more, you hear crack, femur fracture. You know the big bone in your hip, your neurological deficit, spinal cord depression. You know. Now you're weak. Your arms are weak, your legs are weak. You got numbers and tingling all the time.
Speaker 2:Now, of course, you could have some back problems to NASA know, some of these back problems can mimic some of these things I'm talking about. So don't just jump up and say, oh Lord, I got prostate cancer when you know you got a lower back problem where your legs were numb and tingling all the time because from a chronic disease of the spine or the back, lumbar disease or anywhere along the spinal column I know I had surgery on my lower back, so my legs and stuff numb, tingling, my back hurts sometimes. And I said, lord, how can I tell the difference between this old, chronic injury and prostate cancer? And that's why you better go to the doctor and let him do your prostate exam. Man, I don't know why. I know we feel violated when we have to have the director exam, the disc director exam. And see, man, we got to talk more about our experience when we experience these things. We really got to talk more about it.
Speaker 2:I was talking to one of my partners today. The AC man came to check my eye condition and we started talking and he was sharing and so forth about how he you know how he had had radiation and you know he's fine now. He had his prostate removed and radiation, and he's fine. And then there's another gentleman who took the hormone therapy, I guess, the Lupron injection, and it decreases your testosterone, which increases your libido, and so he said he hadn't had sex in five years because he's not aroused anymore because of the way his cancer was treated. And so you got to be careful about the choice. You need to be informed. So you got to read so if you happen to have cancer God forbid then you need to know what choice of treatment is best for you. And so, if you don't want your digital rectal exam now, this is not funny, but he says it's best to have the finger in your rectum than to have a tube when you land up in the morgue. And so I thought that sounded pretty harsh, but it was true. We got to be frank, we got to be, you know, just real about this. And, man, let's talk to each other more about symptoms we're having. Okay, and so well, here we are.
Speaker 2:Next steps what do we do? What do we do? We need to be concerned about the environment we live in. What's the condition of the housing, that quality of the air that we're breathing? We engage in decision-making when it comes to local government, as I told you, everywhere in this country, whatever happens, somebody decides. Except, like I say, for a thunderstorm, a tornado, a hurricane, somebody is deciding where the money is going to be spent and who's going to get what. And you all need to be involved in policy and decision making and that's why you elect folks that you're supposed to be able to talk to.
Speaker 2:Okay, need to get educated. Educate yourself on some of these diseases. Know what the symptoms are. Okay, take care of yourself, take care of your health. Economics plays a large role in health outcomes. We already said that.
Speaker 2:So advocate for more money for your neighborhoods, more money for health services, more money for medicaid expansion. You know you can't just give up. And don't you think they let their physical. They don't always have your best engine in mind. You know they just passed a expanded immunity for law enforcement in Alabama, you know. So now they can almost do whatever they want to do and get away with it. And for all the law enforcement people I've got friends in law enforcement and it seems like that legislate for bad actors, and how do? Why would you use expanded immunity to recruit law enforcement? You're saying that? I guess the message is saying that we're not going to prosecute you, evenute you, even if you're wrong.
Speaker 2:But I don't want to get too far into the politics. We just need to be aware, we need to know what's going on, and so I've just enjoyed myself immensely. I've talked a lot and hopefully I did not offend anyone. Hopefully you all at least began, if you didn't learn anything, at least you began to consider your own health and, ladies, the role that you might play in helping your man, that significant person, that male in your life.
Speaker 2:Father Day is coming up, you know. Maybe you ought to have a conversation with your husband or with your father, with your uncle, about health care. How's your health? Pop, forget about that tie. He's not going to wear it anyway. Don't buy him another tie. Have him sit down and talk to him about his health and see how you can be a blessing in that regard.
Speaker 2:And Juneteenth, don't forget, we're going to celebrate our independence, if we are independent, if we can consider ourselves free. But there's always a struggle. Always, as long as life goes on, there's going to be a struggle between wrong and right, and we're always going to be separating the sheep and the goats. We're going to always be putting the goats on the left and the sheep on the right, and as long as life goes on, there's always going to be choices between wrong and right. And so, having said that, ladies and gentlemen, I just want to thank you for your time, for your attention, and it's certainly been a pleasure to share this information with you. Hopefully, perhaps we might consider changing our behavior in terms of our diet, our exercises, you know, lifestyle modifications, things we can control ourselves. And again I want to thank Ms Coleman for the privilege of being with you all this evening. And again I want to say thank you so much and all the best to each of you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, isaiah, thank you, mr Sankey. I really really appreciate it. Not only did you give us a lot of tips and some tools, guidance, you reinforced what I was saying about come on, ladies, let's get on board, let's help our men out, but, men, you need to be open to speak as well. His wife, mr Sankey's wife, was attentive because she could hear Because when you've been with someone for a while, you know they're happy. You, you, you, you know them, you know them better than anyone, and that's a good thing. Um, so she was attentive, he picked up on it and he went to what he went to see the doctor about. So that's what we need to do. So that's advocating for your mate, that's advocating for yourself.
Speaker 1:Um, we just need to be on one accord when it comes to this. Yes, they're. Uh, men and women can be stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor. Uh, to admit, something just may be wrong, but we're human, we're human. So we need to all be on up on our health, getting these health checks, staying alert, staying abreast, like he said, as he put it so eloquently and a little comically, that you know, religiosity, spirituality, all of that is wonderful and it's good and it is needed. But faith without works is dead. So we need to be working on what we need to be working on.
Speaker 1:So, I have truly enjoyed and appreciated him. I'm sure you all have. And, like he said, now come on ladies. Whatever happened 15 years ago, we should be over that. Help me out. I thought I was going to, anyway, that was very comical to me, but that was real. That's real life what he was speaking to us, and that's the one thing I really like about him he knows how to get his point across. Okay, so thank you so much, mr Sankey, for all that you have done. Give us just a second and we're going to finish. I want to thank everyone for tuning in to Gentry's Journey. I have enjoyed having you. This man's health is serious and we need to get serious about it.