Turn Your Head and Cough: A conversation about men’s health

Let’s face it, guys: we barely know what we’re doing with our health. We’re not stupid, we’re just disinterested. Clouded by the hallucinogenic effects of testosterone, we tell ourselves I’m fine, and so I will continue to be fine, which is fine. Meanwhile, men’s health magazines hypnotize us with constantly changing recommendations designed to hold our eyeballs until the next wellness fad comes along. And when we finally do drag ourselves in for a clinic visit, we find that even good doctors forget that most of us don’t understand medical jargon, nor do they realize we are on a time-sensitive special-ops mission: get in, get what you need, and get out!

Learning about your health doesn’t have to read like a colonoscopy (informative, yes, but difficult to sit through without sedation). Staying healthy is serious business, but it doesn’t have to be boring. Informative but entertaining, this must-read, head-to-toe guide provides actionable advice, so you can stop worrying about your health, do something about it, and get on with your life.

With chapters like Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, Andropause, Sexercise, and Move It or Lose It, you’ll learn how to:

Eat right, exercise effectively, and manage your weight
Address your risks for heart disease, reduce stress, and deal with back pain
Avoid the three cancers that men commonly develop and know if your T levels are right
Navigate challenges in the bedroom, deal with thinning hair, and handle getting older¬-not unscathed, but with a sense of control and dignity
It’s for men of every ethnicity, BMI, hair pattern, shoe size, IPA preference and sports predilection (including none). Think of it as the ultimate checklist for your next checkup. Grab yourself a beverage and a flimsy paper gown, and let’s do this!

Craig Bowron MD FACP is a physician and writer on America’s North Coast. His writing has appeared regionally in Minnesota Monthly, MinnPost, Star Tribune, and Pioneer Press; and nationally in the Washington Post, Slate, Huffington Post, Mayo Clinic Press, Next Avenue, MarketWatch, Forbes, Sojourners, Annals of Internal Medicine, and KevinMD. In October 2022, he published his first book, “Man Overboard! A medical lifeline for the aging male” with Mayo Clinic Press.Board certified in internal medicine, he works at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis as a “hospitalist”– a primary care doctor working exclusively with hospitalized patients. He enjoys the challenge of trying to communicate complex medical information in a way that people can understand, remember, and even enjoy. After all, staying healthy is serious business but it doesn’t have to be boring. In his free time, he enjoys reading and music, and will use any excuse he can find for getting out into nature (short of being a contestant on Naked and Afraid). You can read more about him and find links to his more recent work at craigbowronmd.com.

William Kent Krueger is the author of twenty novels in the New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series, which is set in the great Northwoods of Minnesota. He lives in Saint Paul and does his creative writing in local, author-friendly coffee shops. His 2013 stand-alone novel Ordinary Grace won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. This Tender Land, published in 2019, spent six months among the top ten on the New York Times bestseller list. His most recent stand-alone novel The River We Remember appeared on many lists for the Best Book of the Year and was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Mystery. Spirit Crossing, the latest in his Cork O’Connor series, was chosen by Barnes and Noble as one of the best books of 2024. His work has been translated into more than two dozen foreign languages and optioned by Hollywood.