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Scot: "Who Cares About Men's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ?" That is the name of the podcast. And it's a question that really rose out of us wanting to do a men's health podcast and then realizing that you will find a lot of places on the internet that say men don't care about their health.

We're going to introduce ourselves first, and then we're going to talk about the concept of the show and hopefully how it can help you. So my name is Scot Singpiel. I'm the Senior Producer for The Scope ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ Sciences Radio, which is at ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ of Utah ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ. You can go to thescoperadio.com. I interview physicians and specialists and experts on health topics.

We have over 1,500 of those interviews, got about 40,000 people that listen to those a day. I've done that for the past five years, so I've learned a little bit about health and I personally myself am interested in my health.

Troy: And I'm Dr. Troy Madsen. I'm an emergency physician at ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ of Utah ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ. And I've been practicing emergency medicine for 15 plus years. You know, health for me, obviously in emergency medicine, I see the worst of the worst. And I think for me, I see so much that can be prevented with good health and good health habits.

For me personally, I've had a sort of an on-again, off-again relationship with running. Sometimes I've been excited about it. Other times I've thought this is the stupidest thing in the world. Why do I do it? So I'm in the on-again phase right now, which is good and I'm enjoying it.

But, you know, I agree with you. I think so often we hear men don't care about their health. I think the better statement is men don't want to talk about their health. I think men care deeply about their health. I see that as I talk to them in the ER.

I see their fears about cancer, about heart disease, diabetes, those things, but oftentimes they don't want to talk about it until it's sort of staring them in the face and then they realize I've got to deal with this. But I think it's been on their mind for a long time. What do I do to prevent this? And how do I avoid that trip to the ER?

Scot: That's interesting. I think the audience that we really want to focus on too there's a feeling of invincibility talking about men 25, 35. I know I've been through that myself. You can eat what you want. You can do what you want. You don't seem to suffer really any ill effect to it. You're not going to have those major health conditions between 25 to 35. Those come later.

But it's the decisions that are made during that point in your life that will kind of dictate those health decisions down the road. And let's face it, it's not fun planning for the future. That's why we don't like to save for retirement. It's more fun to enjoy the moment.

Troy: That's exactly right. And I think you said, you know, the invincibility. And when we talk about sort of wake-up calls that we've had, and we'll talk about that on this podcast, but that's when I faced a wake-up call with my health in seeing that, okay, maybe things aren't as great as I think they are.

And ideally this podcast, we'll talk about some of those things and what you can do at this point in your life to invest for the future. And like you said, it's that whole investing thing. But when you look at all those investing numbers, if you're investing in your 20s and 30s and maybe you've looked at that as you're working and thinking about future investments, the payoff is huge. And I think the same applies to health. If you have these health habits established early, they make a big difference in the long run.

Scot: I had a wake-up call as well, which we'll talk about in later episodes. I was forced to really honestly look at the perception of how healthy I was, which was tough, and I had fooled myself for a long time. Part of the problem too, between being between 25 and 35 is a lot of times we don't have those wake-up calls because those wake-up calls come later in life when one has a stroke or when one has a heart attack.

So again, it's realizing that the choices you make now can make a difference. And we're going to focus on some very core things that can make a difference because we're all busy. You know, there's so many articles and so much advice out there, it can get overwhelming. What do I need to really focus on? What should I be doing? And those include making sure you're getting activity in your life and we conscientiously don't say exercise or working out. And there's a reason for that which we'll get into later.

But be sure you're getting some activity. Watch your nutrition. Be sure you're managing your stress. Take care of your sleep. If you have any nagging health issues, be sure you're addressing those. Smoking and drinking important, hopefully, you're not doing that or you're figuring out a way to manage it. And those are the kind of the core things that we look at.

Troy: Exactly. And I think they're all things that they sound simple, but as you start to look at the specifics of so many of these things, you realize just, you know, how deficient we often are. And maybe it's one thing more than another. Maybe your sleep habits are great, but your diet's not so great. Maybe your activity is so-so, and you know. It's all these things and bringing in specialists to talk about their perspective and for us I think really learning from them as well, which is what I really enjoy.

Scot: And sharing our stories, because we found through talking to other people, there tends to be common themes and we're all more alike than we like to think so. "Who Cares About Men's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ?" We do. Another point of this podcast is if enough of us start talking about it, then maybe all of us men will start getting in the habit of talking about it more, which is important, and we'll start to normalize that it's okay to talk about it and it's okay to say, "Yeah, I care."

Troy: Exactly. And I think that's the biggest thing. Like I said, I think we all care about our health, we just don't want to talk about it. So let's talk about it, talk about the issues, bring in some specialists as well and get their perspective, both from a specialist perspective and their personal perspective as well.