Movember – a Healthy Tribute to Steve Jobs and Other Guys

Last year, I wrote a tribute to Movember, ("Moustache + November") and even grew a moustache to support men's health awareness. Although my wife supports good health, puncturing her upper lip with prickly, porcupine-like bristles was NOT something high on her desirability list. The kissability index in my home dropped by 73 percent from October 2011!

This year, my focus is NOT on prostate health alone, but rather men's overall health. It's well-known that men avoid making routine doctor visits and suffer far more at the hands of bad health than their female counterparts. According to an article by Miranda Hitti of WebMD, a 2007 study of men by the American Association of Family Physicians showed that men wait "until the last minute" to get health care. They'll typically wait a few, to many days, thinking they'll get better.

Now, I don't think that Ms. Hitti or even most doctors are looking for men to charge into doctor's offices with every tiny malady. But, when something really isn't right, men need to act, not delay.

I know firsthand that we guys tend to let our medical health get away from us. Too many times we either ignore symptoms (hoping they'll go away) or we assign them to non-dangerous happenings (e.g., growing old). Of course, we don't want to show that we are weak. I'm still trying to figure out how going to a medical specialist, even a doctor, to stay alive and well, exudes weakness.

As noted last year, I lost two professional colleagues, both noted scientists, to different forms of cancer. Both experienced symptoms and both ignored them until it was too late. I swore at that time that I'd be a health advocate. And I practice what I preach, undertaking annual physicals, eating healthier, visiting my physician when needed and more. I am also an avid supporter of the Komen Race For The Cure, because my wife is a breast cancer survivor. And there's no one out there that doesn't recognize the pink ribbons and myriad of corporate supporters that line up to support research and awareness of that disease.

This year (2011), Steve Jobs became the poster child of men's health care. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he opted for non-proven remedies for months, placing his overall health in jeopardy. Jobs wasn't a scientist, like my two colleagues, but he was a smart guy, a really smart guy. But not so in health care. He should have been around long enough to see the iPad18 launched sometime beyond 2020.

Advocating men's health

So, when I heard of Movember (Fig. 1), a movement to foster men's health awareness and research (specifically for prostate cancer), I knew I had to get involved.

Movember, a conjunction of "moustache" and "November" affords a time each year to focus on men's health. But, as we all know, good health knows no monthly limits. It really needs to be a year-long activity.

Each November, the Movember Foundation challenges men to change their appearance and the "face of men's health" by growing a moustache. According to the Foundation, "The moustache is our ribbon, the means by which we raise awareness and funds for cancers that affect men. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, our commitment is to grow a moustache for 30 days. Funds raised benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG (a registered trademark of the Lance Armstrong Foundation)."

Movember had humble beginnings. It started with a chance conversation between Luke Slattery and Travis Garone, two Australian blokes, in 2003. While discussing the comeback of fashion trends from the past, the question, "why no return of the moustache?" surfaced. Shortly thereafter, 30 men grew moustaches on a dare.

The next year, the Movember Foundation was born with 450 men growing "staches." While doing so, they raised $55,000, the largest single donation to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia - http://www.prostate.org.au/articleLive/ at the time. As a result, the moustache became Movember's badge and the effort to make men walking billboards for men's health was born.

Movember has now gained international status (http://www.movember.com) with efforts underway in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Europe. And in 2009 alone, around a quarter of a million donors raised $40 million (USD) to support collaborative research and education/awareness efforts.

As of mid-November 2011, more than a million men and women around the world have taken the pledge to foster men's health. I am one of these.

But, I won't dwell further on the history here. You can read all about it on page 11 of the Foundation's 2010 Annual Report.

Moustaches, themselves…

All of this got me to think about moustaches. I've grown one in the past, but it rarely lasts very long. Still, it was easy to sprout one last year and again this November (Fig. 2) for the cause.

But, so did my two grandsons in Minnesota (Fig. 3)!

In addition to my family (not that we are famous), here is a partial list of truly famous moustache wearers, some from the movember web site and others from my memory:

Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie character)

Burt Reynolds (movie - Smokey and the Bandit)

Albert Einstein (scientist)

Charlie Chaplin (silent screen actor)

Colonel Sanders (Finger Lickin' Good)

George Harrison (member of Beatles)

Tom Selleck (Magnum PI)

Wild Bill Hickok (Western lawman)

Mr. Potato Head (Hasbro game character)

Hulk Hogan (wrestler)

Salvadore Dali (artist)

Unfortunately, there is the usual cast of villains who sport "staches," as well. Ming the Merciless (Flash Gordon fame), Dick Dastardly (cartoon character) and Adolf Hitler are three of the most noteworthy.

I'll stick with the positive, however. Movember is a wonderful idea with laudable goals. Hopefully, this article and those people who have asked me about my moustache will foster even more awareness. Nothing would be better than increasing and fostering men's health, not just in Movember, but starting now, in Movember 2011 and adding to the growing list of prostate cancer survivors…

© 2011 H. Michael Mogil