A reader writes and why a runner runs

Quite incredibly someone seems to have noticed this blog. It's been so neglected during the upgrading of the malehealth and Men's Health Forum websites that the last thing I was expecting was to be mentioned in someone's ten best blogs list.

But Nursing School Search.com, the US site for would-be nurses looking for info on colleges, education and careers, have included it in the general section of its 100 Best Men’s Health & Fitness Blogs. Thanks, guys. They say the malehealth website is 'a great place to find health information for men, and the editor maintains this informative blog as well' - now I just need to do it!

Marathon correspondence

Interesting research from the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference following yesterday's post on my mate Ian's marathon run. A survey of marathon runners found that men and women tend to run for different reasons. Men were more likely to give personal goal achievement and competition, such as time or place in the field while women were more likely to run for reasons around feeling better - ‘to improve my mood’ or ‘to feel at peace with the world’ - or to keep weight down. What do you think Ian?

Trying to run faster than the missus

A good friend of mine braved the hottest day of the year so far and the imminent descent of the ash cloud to run the Brighton Marathon yesterday. Apparently his main motivation was that once his wife ran the London one last year he 'really had no choice but to try and go faster'. Hmm, what can I say except there's plenty more on the idiosyncracies of the male psyche on malehealth. Of course, there are, I imagine, many good reasons for being able to outrun your wife and Ian is pleased to report that he managed this.

If you'd like to support Ian, he was doing the run for the Alzheimer's Society. He says: 'It's not something I'd given much thought to until a relative of mine began to suffer the effects and I've seen the impact on the rest of the family. With the advances in medicine to cure other illnesses it's a sad fact that many of us are likely to have our lives or the lives of ones we love impacted.' Very true. There's more on Alzeimer's on the site and of course, everything you need if you want to train to run a marathon yourself. You can sponsor Ian here.

My User's Guide has been shortlisted for a respected book award

My most recent book The User's Guide to the Male Body (Sheldon 2009; £8.99) has been shortlisted for the Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Awards in the self-help general readership section.

Now I've no idea how many general self-help books were published during the eligible period but all the same, it's great to have something that you've done recognised by your peers (especially as I'm not even a member of the Medical Journalists' Association!) Thanks very much. Since the book's not medical or even technical and at just 120 pages makes good health as simple as possible, I'm hoping it's the writing, based on the interviews I've done for malehealth, that they liked.

Our first newsletter of the year

I've just sent out the first malehealth newsletter of the year and the first since the site was redesigned. I must confess that the Men's Health Forum's sites are still a little buggy but malehealth seems to have fared a little better in this respect than the organisation's website. The sites have always had great content - i hope now it's a little easier to find.

If you received the newsletter, hope it worked. let me know what you think. If you'd like to receive the next one - they go about once a month - sign up here.

Is feminism man's best friend?

In a world where women put in two-thirds of the working hours for less than one-tenth of the income, I've long felt that feminism seems to have done men more favours than women. We've shaken off the shackles of traditional sex roles and now have the right to be interested in our kids, to be bored to death by cars, to be useless at DIY etc while women seem resolutely chained to lower-paid jobs and the kitchen sink. I'm exaggerating for effect obviously.

My short opinion piece to this effect in Prospect magazine offended some and I now seem involved in an interesting little online spat. The publishers not surprisingly are keen to publicise it so if anyone wants to pitch in, please do.

My original was why feminism favours men. Laurie Penny's reply is here and my latest installment here.

Meanwhile, apologies for the lack of updates to the websites (and this blog!) I'm so bogged down in technical stuff there's been no time for writing!

The bully or the bullied?

Accusations about Gordon Brown all over the media.

Bullying is a pernicious and soul destroying experience. Nobody should be subjected to it at work. Unfortunately modern working culture makes it more and more likely as the increasingly heavy workload buck is passed down the line. Work is becoming the major cause of ill-health in the developed world - much of the toll is mental.

Bullies seek to destroy an individual's individuality. This also sounds like a good description of the media pack of wolves in a frenzy of blood-lust and it is possible that voters will wind up feeling that Gordon Brown is as much the victim of bullying as he is a bully. What is clear is that people who report bullying have to be able to do so in total confidence and if organisations like the National Bullying Helpline (NBH) don't understand this their days are surely numbered. This is a shame as an organisation like this is sorely needed.

Bullying at work is too important an issue to become a political football. If the NBH have evidence against Gordon Brown, his office or indeed any other minister's office, they should pursue them through internal human resources, the cabinet office, the victim's trade union, even due process of law. In short, there are many channels more appropriate than the screaming press release.

The logic of Labour's inequalities agenda

While all around they've been trashing Gordon Brown I've written before on the Men's Health Forum's website about the good things Labour have done for public health and men's health. By seeing health as an inequality issue (with men - unusually - getting the rawer deal), they effectively opened a door that the Conservatives had kept tightly shut.

But recent figures suggest the low-hanging fruit may have all been picked, that the win-wins may have all been won. (Insert the management cliché of your choice.) The Office for National Statistics suggests that the reduction in smoking has come to a coughing and spluttering halt. In the ONS's latest annual lifestyle survey 21% of adults smoked. The same as in 2007. There was even a small increase in smoking among people in 'routine and manual groups'. At the same time we learn that suicides increased during 2008 - the first rise since the 1998 peak. The male rate remains triple that of the female and indeed the gap has widened.

The TUC have pointed out today that the link between unemployment and depression was established a lifetime ago (1940 if not earlier). Their Recession Report cites research by the Social Exclusion Task Force showing the link between depression and job loss is much the same now as it was nearly 20 years ago. In 2008, as in the 2001 recession, as in 1991 recession, about a third of people who lost their job got depressed compared to less than one in five who stayed in work.

So why are we so reluctant to see a link between the economic structures we have in place and public health? Not of interest to the middle England middle ground 50,000 swing voters who determine UK elections? Come on, Gordon, you can do better than that.

Job insecurity kills men and makes them ill. If Labour really can bite the bullet here and follow the implications of their inequality agenda through to a conclusion that these recent figures have only made more obvious, could it yet pull the election iron from the fire of recession? Or will I have to find some new management clichés?