KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Men's Health Magazine has ranked Honolulu the healthiest city in America for men. Glenn Nihei hiked the Aiea Loop trail recently.
Honolulu
'healthiest'
for menA men's magazine says
health conditions here are
the best of 101 cities surveyedBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comHonolulu men: Lucky you live here instead of Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia or Memphis.
Those are America's unhealthiest cities in the second annual ranking of the "Best (and Worst) Cities for Men" in the November issue of Men's Health Magazine.
Honolulu is by far the healthiest of 101 cities ranked by the magazine, scoring solid A's across the board for health, environment and fitness.
San Jose, Calif., in second place, scored only one A but was the only city with a lower mortality rate than Honolulu.
The other "healthiest cities" for men, according to the magazine, are Rochester, N.Y.; Santa Ana, Calif.; and Grand Rapids, Mich.
Despite the magazine's glowing picture of healthy Honolulu men, it doesn't tell the whole story, cautions Dr. Neal Palafox, associate professor and co-chairman of family practice and community health at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine.
The magazine quoted him as saying: "People in general have good habits here. They have access to very healthy foods that grow abundantly, like guavas, mangoes and papayas."
In addition, the article said, "The men of Honolulu have run, swum and lifted their way to a No. 1 ranking in overall fitness."
But Palafox, in an interview with the Star-Bulletin, said he also tried to get the magazine to report that while men "definitely are healthy here, like other areas, there are pockets of people, certain disenfranchised or special populations, that aren't healthy.
"We work with a lot of indigenous Hawaiians and Micronesians, a segment of the population that is disenfranchised," he said.
"Although the appearance is very big, strapping folk from the Pacific, again sometimes the communities they live in are not healthy," not only physically, but economically and socially, he said.
About 100,000 residents have no medical insurance, he added.
"You can't gloss over that. I'm sure a lot of those are going to be folks who aren't healthy."
But Men's Health chose to focus on a different view of Honolulu. Its article states: "What a shame that America's healthiest city for men is a place where so many of us live it up, but so few of us actually live.
"While you're getting lei'd, exploring black sand beaches, taking helicopter tours and trying to score front row for Don Ho, the average Honolulan male is enjoying a daily bath of statistical immunity that makes your last blood panel look like a death warrant.
"And why not? There's a lot to live for here. Twenty-footers on the North Shore. Dusk on Sunset Beach. Women in grass skirts, with hips that move faster than a paint-can mixer. And best of all, a climate that makes an unassailable argument for outdoor office space.
"Locals tap into all that positive energy to the tune of the lowest cancer death rate in the United States and a heart-disease ranking in the top five."
The article says the amount of public land in Honolulu "is staggering: 6,644 acres of parks, beaches, golf courses, tennis courts and pools and so much surfing, scuba diving and snorkeling that when Aquaman visits, he requires an afternoon nap."
The cities were scored on 20 parameters of long life in environment and fitness categories, including heart disease and prostate cancer rates, body-mass index, motor vehicle accident, percentage who exercise, number of doctors per person and air quality.
Palafox said his department's mission is to work with community programs and train family practice physicians to recognize special needs in rural Hawaii and Pacific areas.
Faculty sports doctors do a lot of physical exams in the rural areas and see many overweight kids, he said.
"They're on football teams because they're big. We tell them they've got to lose weight, but the needs are very different and emphasis is very different.
"You want them to be the best athletes they can, but they're certainly fighting different types of economic and cultural issues than those reading that magazine."
Access also is an issue, Palafox said, pointing out some parts of the state have more tennis courts and other sports facilities than others.
"I guess that's the nature of economics," he said.
Also, there is "certainly a big difference" in what rural public schools have, compared with some town schools, he said.
"Yes, Hawaii is a wonderful place to be, a wonderful state and people are healthy. But a lot of folks don't have access to these things. We need to work together to improve equity and access instead of say, 'Wow, we made it.'"
