Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 1 Jun 2016

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From YouTube: Man Up, Check Up, Tune Up!

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Find out about the Health Department’s free health screenings for men.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm ellen kobler.. It sometimes seems that breast cancer and other women's health issues.

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Get the lion's share of attention., but men also need to pay attention to their bodies and be screened for potentially serious conditions, like prostate and colon cancer,, as well as heart, disease, diabetes,.

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And other non-gender-specific ailments.

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we're joined today by baltimore county's top doc,, dr. gregory branch,.

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Director of the department of health and human services..

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Thank you so much for joining us. Today.

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And thank you for having me, ellen. all right.. So am I off base here?.

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Is it true that oftentimes men aren't quite as quick.

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To go to the doctor or check for preventative care?.

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Unfortunately, yes.

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What happens is the fact that men tend not to go to the doctor.

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We know that women go to the doctor much, much more often than men, do.

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And men tend to just kind of go when they have an emergency --.

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A broken bone or something like that., so they'll go into the doctor's then,, but we really need the men going to doctors for preventative care.

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Okay, so historically, baltimore county's health department has not really provided a lot of screening clinics.

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Specifically for men's conditions., what prompted this change? overall,, what we see is the fact that we know.

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That coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in america. Today.

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And we know that there are so many men who are dying from coronary artery, disease.

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and so therefore,. We want to get in there and check them out..

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In addition to that,. We know that sexually transmitted infections.

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Are on the rise also and want to check them out for that too.

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So because of all the issues that men can potentially have.

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Down the road that we know that we can prevent today,.

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We're saying, "come on in! get checked out." okay,. So when you talk about coronary artery, disease,.

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That's everything from high cholesterol, heart attack,.

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The potential for strokes...

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Exactly,, so that when we have heart disease and stroke,.

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It's very, very important., so if a person has an elevated blood pressure or the person has an elevated cholesterol or they have undiagnosed diabetes.

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Or they may be a smoker,. Those are all some of the different things that can cause heart disease.

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And we want to get in there to prevent it. okay,. So tell us more, please about these screening clinics.

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By the way,, I think that your slogan is hysterical.

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And right on point: "man up. check up. tune, up.".

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Exactly. "man up. check up. tune up.".

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That's exactly what we want them to do,, especially when it relates to diabetes.

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We want them to get their glucose checked., that's very,, very important.,.

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And diabetes has very severe long-term effects.

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Yes., so I mean, you can have strokes because of that.

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You can go blind because of that., you can actually have kidney disease because of that and you can have a lot of numbness --.

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What we call neuropathy -- because of diabetes.

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So clearly, clearly,, that's very,, very important that we screen for that.

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It's important that we screen for your hearing; hyper-tension,, which is blood pressure.. That's the silent, killer.

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People don't know that they have high blood pressure and each and every day, they're kind of basically doing a roulette.

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To a certain degree of saying: "are they going to have a heart attack or a stroke?'.

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So it's important to check your hypertension or your blood pressure.

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And also, it's very, very important to check the hiv.

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So,, there are certain things we want to check out and we're there.

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Okay, and are there certain age ranges of men.

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Who you want to attend these clinics?.

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Yeah, for these clinics, we're going to ask any male over the age of 18 to come on out and see us.

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Really?, even that young get checked out for the blood pressure and all?.

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Yes, because it's important to prevent these things early in life.,.

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Okay,, and do you need health insurance to come to the clinics?.

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For our men's clinic, no,, you do not.

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Basically, anyone if you have insurance,, if you don't have insurance,.

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Or if you're under-insured, we're saying come, one, come all.

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So, even if you have health insurance, but maybe you don't go to the--.

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Don't have a regular doctor, just come on in there.

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Come on in. we're ready to check you out, too.

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Okay, and where are you locating these clinics?.

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We're going to be at -- on the east side of baltimore county and on the west side of baltimore county., we'll be at our family resource center on the east side, and on the west side we'll be at our liberty, health, center.

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okay,, and this is a one-day clinic, right?.

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Friday, june 24th. and it looks like you've scheduled it around lunch time.

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To make it kind of convenient for people?.

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Yes! we want to make it very, very convenient for folks to come. In.

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We're going to say come in between 11am and 2pm.

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and guess what?. You don't need an appointment.

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oh, okay,, just walk right, in., just walk right on in. yes, indeed.

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Okay, very nice., and should men bring anything with them to the health clinic?.

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They don't have to bring anything but themselves and a smile.

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themselves and a smile. ( laughing ) just come on in and smile and we'll take care of you.

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okay. and are you checking for prostate cancer,? Anything like that?.

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Right,, so what happens, we'll be doing some baseline screenings.

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We'll be actually talking to the men and then, if we're not going to be able to do.

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Any type of screening there for a particular thing,.

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We will refer them somewhere else where they can get that screening taken care, of.

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Okay. in the quick minute we have left, just recap for us.

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you're, doing men's health screenings.

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Men's health screening kind of stuff, -- "man up. check, up. tune, up." come on out., it is a free clinic and you don't need an appointment.

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It is a matter of life and death.

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Okay, and you're talking about a lot of preventable issues.

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Where, if somebody kind of gets a hold of it now and knows that they have a predisposition,.

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They can take immediate steps.

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and it doesn't have to be extreme --, just some basic lifestyle, changes.

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exactly. and in particular, you're, targeting men at these clinics..

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Because men have historically not come to the doctor.

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So we're asking them to come on in, to man, up, tune up, and to get a check up.

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All right, and that's for some of the silent killers that are out there.

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Definitely for some of the silent killers,, especially hypertension, hiv,,.

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And any type of sexually transmitted, infections.

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Well, we invite all the men out, there,, and especially the ladies that are watching, to encourage their men to come and get checked. Up.

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yes,, indeed., all right., and thank you for watching hello, baltimore county., don't forget,! You can find out about health screenings for your family.

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On the county website and on our facebook and twitter.

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Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on hello, baltimore, county.,.