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« Monday Blog Meat: The Pressure's Off | Main | Ya Think? »

Real Men Recover Faster

March 20, 2007

Last week I teed off on this story in the Washington Post, a generic run-down of men that started with the conclusion that we would do ourselves a favor if we started acting more like women.

I like women just fine -- I'm married to one, and we're raising a crop of our own -- but I think there's a reason why men and women developed distinct gender traits. And researchers at my alma mater may have discovered one of them:

While many scientists have considered these masculine tendencies to be barriers to health and recovery, a small study of about 50 men suggests the opposite.

The man-of-steel mentality, often associated with military men and those in other high-risk occupations, can boost and speed up a guy's recovery from a serious and/or traumatic injury.

"It has long been assumed that men are not as concerned and don't take as good of care of their health [as women]," said lead study author Glenn Good of the University of Missouri, Columbia, "but what we're seeing here is that the same ideas that led to their injuries may actually encourage their recovery."

The researchers looked at middle-aged men with traumatic brain and spinal-cord injuries. Here's what they found:

[M]en who focused on their careers, success, power and competition ... showed greater improvement a year after their hospitalization. Perhaps, the scientists report, an inner narrative is the engine behind the boost in health.

For example, a brawny boy might think, "Yeah there are tough challenges, but nothing will stop me from reaching my goal," the scientists state in a report of this study published in a recent issue of the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity.

I guess you could say those traits fall into the general category of "positive attitude." A guy who's aggressive and ambitious would probably have a better attitude toward his work in general, and perhaps toward his specific job. Chances are he's pushing forward and making his own breaks within his company, so it's sort of logical that he'd want to recover faster from his injuries.

This study isn't exactly comparable, but it shows that "job satisfaction" plays a role in how quickly workers return to their jobs following medical leave for lower-back injuries. (It also suggests that the attitude of the doctor treating the worker matters; the more positive the prognosis, the faster the worker returns to the job.)

I quickly scanned through some other studies on injury and recovery, and didn't find anything that adds a lot to this discussion. Employees who see themselves as overworked will take longer to recover from injuries, as will those who smoke or see themselves as having poor health in general. I don't see any big surprises there.

So I guess the news here is that there's some benefit to being ambitious, competitive, and career-focused: When the shit lands on your head, you'll dig out faster than someone who doesn't have those traits.

It makes intuitive sense, but it's also nice to see it quantified.

Posted by LouSchuler at March 20, 2007 08:38 AM

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