Women live longer than men, find out why

MANILA, Philippines – Previous researches have claimed that women live longer than men. At an average, women live on six years longer than men do.

For years, science has tried to explain the reason for this phenomenon. While genes and hormones do contribute to this reality, lifestyle has a great bearing to this as well.

Here are some of the reasons why women, as a group, live longer  than men:

Genetics
Men have an inherent genetic weakness. The death rates for women are lower than those for men at all ages, even before birth.  “Because men have weaker immune system, they are more likely be prone to prenatal infection as soon as they were born,” said Marianne Legato, MD, professor emeritus of clinical medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and founder and director of the Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine, as quoted by TIME.

Testosterone surge and aggression
Thomas Perls & Ruth Fretts, on their article about why women live longer than men, said that the noticeable peak in the sex-mortality ratio at puberty coincides with increased testosterone production in men. Because the male hormone has been linked with aggression and competitiveness as well as libido, some researchers ascribe this spike in male mortality to "testosterone toxicity." Later in life, testosterone puts men at risk biologically as well as behaviorally. During this period, men are three times more likely to die than women, and most of the male fatalities are caused by reckless behavior or violence.

Smoking
Nearly 20 percent of the world’s population smoke cigarettes, including about 800 million men and 200 million women. University of Maryland, College Park Sociology Professor Philip Cohen said that smoking contributes to shortening the lifespan of males. According to him, the 20th century is dominated with smoking men making them more vulnerable to lung cancer and other smoking related diseases. In addition to that, statistics released by the World Health Organization also shows that more men die of smoking each year than women.

Heart disease

The impending heart disease in male starts at puberty when the testosterone level rises. It increases blood levels of the bad cholesterol and decreases levels of the good one, putting men at greater risk of heart disease and stroke.

By 40s, exponential rise in the risk of heart disease in male sets in as attributed to their lifestyle; in contrast, women's risk of dying from heart disease does not begin to increase until after menopause, and it approaches the male risk only in extreme old age. This may be because of the estrogen’s ability to lower the bad cholesterol level and while increasing the levels of the good one. It also produces antioxidants that prevent vascular damage and aging.

“For every 1,000 men who have cardiovascular problems between the age of 55 and 65, there are only 25 women in the same situation,” says Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse with the British Heart Foundation.