The Google Wrap (Up)

Posted on June 18, 2011 by TTC Team

Got a slice of Google life this week with a lecture and lunch on the Googleplex campus. Here’s the Google wrap up. Now, this is a company with great ingredients for a healthy work life: Yoga and massage classes, personal trainers, free bicycles, three squares a day, an on-site doctor, haircuts, car washes, dry cleaning, rubber exercise balls everywhere, and health and wellness lectures at lunch. In the words of CEO Eric Schmidt “The goal is to strip away everything that gets in our employees’ way.” Nothing like the corporate America of yesteryear. Truly, a very tasty wrap.

The Guy’s Guide to Maintaining Sexual Health Talk

My talk was well attended and, as far as I could tell, no one fell asleep. Maybe it’s because I kept up the pace. Or, maybe the young Googlers were riveted by my relatively disruptive philosophy how best to identify and care for men’s sexual health issues. If you just can’t wait for the YouTube video to be posted on Google Health in a week or two, here’s the meat of it:

Young men are medically underserved in America.
One problem that contributes to this is that their care is fragmented and reductionist in nature since it is provided by various doctors.
One helpful solution would be to train more men’s health specialists who “own” all aspects of young men’s health.
Another problem is that men do not have biological reminders, or biomarkers, of their health, unlike the menstrual cycle in women.
Importantly, sexual health issues such as low sex drive, erectile dysfunction and infertility are intimately relatedto overall health. Examples:
- Men with erectile function are twice as likely to have heart attacks later in life.
- Men who are infertile are 2 to 3 times more likely to get testis and prostate cancer, respectively, later in life.
Maintaining good overall health is a great way of optimizing sexual health. The reverse is also true.
Sexual health issues should therefore be considered natural biomarkers of overall health for men.
If we educate men about such natural biomarkers, then they may assume more “ownership” of their health and live healthier, productive and maybe longer lives.

Googlers Care

I have to admit the Googlers surprised me, right off the bat, at start of the talk. Watch the YouTube video and you’ll see. Not surprisingly, when I asked the audience how many of them get regular oil changes for their cars (not knowing that Google provides this service for them), most of them raised their hands. However, when I asked how many of them had been to a doctor in the past year for a personal checkup…again the majority raised their hands. More than I had ever seen among young men. This is a good sign, to see men taking equally good care of their bodies and their cars. I see this as a powerful first step for men to achieve “ownership” of their personal health and wouldn’t you know it, Googlers are leading the way. Happy Father’s Day.