“TAKE YOUR MAN TO THE DOCTOR”: BP MARKOWITZ TO URGE MEN TO VISIT PHYSICIAN, ENCOURAGE LOVED ONES TO GET THEM THERE
Event will feature young Brooklyn newlyweds living with husband’s Stage IV lung cancer

11:30 A.M. (PRESS CONFERENCE)
11:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M. (HEALTH SCREENINGS)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6
BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL
209 JORALEMON STREET
BETWEEN COURT AND ADAMS STREETS
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN

On Thursday, October 6, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will launch his tenth annual “Take Your Man to the Doctor” campaign—a call to action for men of all ages, ethnicities, and economic levels to regularly visit a doctor, and for the women and men who love them to help make it happen. Participating Brooklyn hospitals, clinics and healthcare professionals will offer free flu shots, HIV testing, exercise demonstrations, health screenings for asthma, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, glucose, glaucoma and other conditions, and make important health information available onsite from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Borough Hall Plaza.

BP Markowitz will be joined by young Brooklynites who were planning their wedding last year when the groom-to-be—just 24 years old at the time and a non-smoker—was diagnosed with Stage IV NSCLC lung cancer. The couple is spreading the word about the importance of routine doctor visits and health screenings, as well as raising awareness of lung cancer.

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report Health, United States, 2010, men ages 18-44 years represented about 20 percent fewer visits to a primary care generalist than women. The report also indicates that men were twice as likely not to have a usual source of health care, as compared to women. Source: www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/men.htm, Tables 92 and 75.
  
  
• The 2010 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report found that Hispanic and Black men were less likely than White men to have access to a physician. The report shows that Black patients were about four percent less likely to have a usual primary care provider, and an even higher disparity of approximately 15 percent for Hispanics. Source: www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr10/Chap9.htm
  
  
• The U.S Department of Health and Human Services recommends that men receive regular screenings for such things as blood cholesterol, blood pressure, colorectal cancer, diabetes, depression, sexually transmitted diseases and prostate cancer. Source: www.ahrq.gov/ppip/healthymen.htm

In 2006, BP Markowitz learned firsthand the importance of regular checkups, early detection and preventative care when he experienced chest pains that resulted in an operation to insert a stent. He finally went to the hospital only after his wife Jamie insisted.