Episode Transcript
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Focus on Activity Not Necessarily Exercise
Activity is vital to a person's health and it's important to get enough every day. Urologist Dr. Alex Pastuszak explains that one of the major reasons he's a doctor is because it's an active job. He's up walking around, interacting with patients. On those long paperwork days where he's stuck at a computer, he makes sure that he gets up at least once an hour just to get his body moving.
Dr. Pastuszak reminds everyone that activity does not necessarily mean your typical exercise at a gym. Shoveling the snow in the morning can get your heart rate up enough to be good for your body. It's best to try to get 30 minutes of exercise a day, at least three times a week to keep your body healthy.
What to Do If You're Experiencing Testicle Pain
Guys, if your testicles are hurting, you should seek medical attention. Understandably, any pain down there can worry a man, but it's important to know what type of pain you're experiencing and what steps you need to take for treatment.
If you are experiencing the sudden onset of severe pain in the testicles, you need to get treatment immediately at an urgent care or emergency room. Whether this pain comes from an injury or you wake up in the morning with severe pain, these can be symptoms of something serious.
Acute, severe pain in the testicles can be sign of testicular trauma or torsion. These conditions are an emergency. They can have very serious consequences and require surgery as soon as possible.
Don't wait. Get treatment.
For less serious pain, or more chronic minor pain, you should still go seek a diagnosis, but they are not an emergency. Some of the conditions related to minor testicular pain include:
- Dilation of testicular veins
- Kidney stones
- Problems related to the pelvic floor
- Prostate swelling
- Testicular varicocele
These conditions will require medical intervention, but they often take time to treat and diagnose. They can be handled by a primary care physician or a urologist if needed.
Keep in mind, testicular cancer usually does not cause pain. So if you're feeling pain down there, don't assume you have cancer.
Guys, It's Probably Worth Checking Yourself
Dr. Alex Pastuszak nerds out a little over official health recommendations. According to him, the official recommendations for men is that a self check of your testicles is not necessary. This official stance confuses both Dr. Pastuszak and the urologists he's worked with.
A monthly self check in the shower is a convenient, non-embarrassing, zero-cost preventative measure to make sure your testicles are healthy. Dr. Pastuszak suggests getting into the habit of doing a self check regularly is important if you're going to catch anything.
Testicles are not smooth little eggs. They're different for each and every guy. Testicles are not always smooth. They will sometimes have little lumps and bumps that are totally natural. It's important to get familiar with the feel of your own parts so you can be on the lookout for any changes over time. If you notice any changes in the shape or feel of your testicles, it's worth getting them looked at by a professional.
ER or Not: Passed Out for No Reason
You are just minding your own business. Then you suddenly wake up on the floor with people surrounding you asking if you're okay. You've passed out for seemingly no reason. Should you go to the ER?
Troy has experienced this first hand on a trip to Washington D.C. While he admits that it was a very scary experience, it's complicated to decide whether or not it's something to go to the emergency room for.
According to Dr. Madsen, 95% of the time that a person randomly loses consciousness, everything is fine. But for that last 5%, passing out can be a sign of something more potentially life threatening. It's worth getting blood work and other tests done to screen for a serious heart condition
If you are passing out for seemingly no reason, go to the urgent care. Especially if you have passed out more than one time. They'll begin the diagnosis process and decide whether you need to go to the emergency room.
Are You a Maximizer or Satiscficer?
Scot is the type of guy who agonizes over the work in his Master's courses. He stresses out making sure that every article he includes in a paper is the very best one. He reads over his work over and over to make sure he's creating the very best possible work he can.
Meanwhile, Troy just gets things done.
An article in the New York Times asserts that there are two types of people in the world: maximizers and satisficers. Scot identifies as one, while Troy is more the other.
Maximizers are perfectionists. They agonize over maximizing their efforts to ensure that they are getting the very best possible work done. This often leads to high stress during the process and a lack of satisfaction in their work.
Satisficers do whatever needs to be done to finish the work in front of them. They don't stress about whether the work is perfect and will often finish projects more efficiently than maximizers. Satiscficers also report being satisfied with their work at the end of the day and experience less stress completing tasks.
It's important to remember that a project is never going to be absolutely perfect. There will always be changes that can be made to a piece of work, but at some point, it you need to be done.
Value your mental health. It's just as crucial as your physical health. Make sure you aren't causing undue stress on yourself.
Just Going to Leave This Here
On this episode's Just Going to Leave This Here, Troy is surprised to learn just how hard it was to get to the moon after listening to the audiobook The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon. He highly recommends it. Meanwhile, Scot can't stand when men use their phone next to him at the urinal and urges every man out there to just stop it.
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