PROSTATE CANCER...NOT A GAME FOR BLACK DADS

Sadly, if you're a black man - you're all too familiar with the lethal association of colon cancer and our B Dads.  My father died of liver cancer, but was also afflicted with colon cancer during his life.  The reality of the disease is so common, that it may just arise in every day conversation or listening to tunes. I recently listed to an amazing episode of The Nod podcast, only to discover, towards the end of the episode, that the editor of the episode died of colon cancer.  It's that common!  So why is it that, despite the positive impact of early screenings, black men seem to get screened significantly less than their non black counterparts?  For many men, the most common screening mechanism - The DRE - or the digital (finger) rectal examination is absolutely terrifying.  Combine this with lower insurance rates, lack of medical resource access - and bam!  You've got yourself a 44-75% higher occurrence rate of prostate cancer within the black male community.  Well, maybe this isn't the only reason, but it's a known contributor.  Here's my recommendation - GET OVER IT.  Our kids and families can't afford to deal with our fear of an uncomfortable encounter with a medical test, when it's impacting the health of our community.  While there aren't specific caveats to screening guidelines for black men, due to our higher rates of indecent and younger rates of incident, many doctors recommend getting tested as early as 40 years old.  If you think you're alone in protecting your self against this disease, check out one of the coolest NBA players in history - John Salley getting a prostate test on The Doctors, proving that any and every B Dad should protect his health and not be ashamed by the process in which he does it.