While medical school teaches prospective doctors everything they could ever want to know about how to care for the human body, in the experience of area physician Larry Wile, all the education in the world cannot prepare medical professionals for the subtleties of caring for the soul.

In his nearly 30 years of practicing medicine in his hometown of Portage, Michigan, Wile has helped his patients not just with physical maladies, but — through years of experience — he has also learned to provide support for them while they went through some of the hardest emotional traumas one can experience: the death of a child or spouse, a bitter divorce or the dissolution of someone’s family.

The most difficult challenge Wile experienced during the early years of his career was caring for middle aged men, who often resisted the medical advice the doctor gave them during their visits, he said.

As any good doctor would, Wile set out to diagnosis the root cause of the problem. After years of reading about and treating these types of patients, he is confident he is closing in on the answer.

“We [doctors] never learned about the process of going through middle age,” Wile said. “In some of us, you can see it — with receding hairlines or expanding bellies — but for the most part you can’t see that process. But as men, we experience it, and for a lot of men, it’s a time of frustration, burnout and exhaustion.”

Wile, the medical director of the Cass/Van Buren Health Department, talked the struggles men face during the transition into the second phases of their lives during his presentation to the members of the Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday afternoon. The doctor was invited to speak to the service organization by Rotarian Barbara Groner.

Wile — who received a scholarship from his local Rotary club to visit Mexico when he was 16 — has served as medical director with the local health department for the last several years. While working with local professionals on the health needs of Cass and Van Buren county, Wile has continued to see patients at his family practice in Portage, which he has operated for the last 27 years.

Through his work, Wile has wrestled with how to help men dealing with midlife crises for years now, although it was not until he read the book “Death of a Hero, Birth of the Soul” by John Robinson when the problem really came into focus with him, he said.

Referencing the title of the book, Wile said that, growing up, young men grow up with a desire to become “a hero,” which in today’s terms means making a lot of money, buying a big house and climbing the ranks in the workforce.

“As guys, we all love ‘Rocky,’” said Wile, referencing the popular movie series. “Who doesn’t want to be Rocky? We all want to be the hero. But how many of us end up being Rockies?”

When the physical limitations of middle age begin to set in, though, frustration at the fact they were unable to achieve all their goals begins to take root in many men. In many cases, this leads to a midlife crisis in some men, who do everything from dying their greying hair and hitting the gym to divorcing their wives and remarrying a woman half their age, Wile said.

To combat this, men reaching the second half of their lives should not look for external things, such as wealth or power, to justify their existence, but should turn inward — to their “souls,” so to speak — for validation instead. Rather than focus on buying expensive cars or chasing the next big promotion at the office, men should instead consider spending more time with the grandchildren or volunteering their time for a charity in their community, Wile said.

“When I see people who are on their death bed, I have yet to have a conversation with someone who said, ‘I wish I would have had that red Cadillac or had that corner office with that plaque on the wall,’” Wile said. “They bring up their family, their friends and what they are passionate about. That is what they talk about. They don’t talk about the hero stuff as much as they talk about the soul stuff.”