I have heard people mention that women live longer than men, but I didn’t know why. So, I decided to dive deeper into the topic and see as to why women live longer. After reading articles, I discovered that its not just humans that have the women living longer.
“It turns out that the females of most species live longer than the males. This phenomenon suggests that the explanation for the difference within humans might lie deep in our biology.” said Thomas Kirkwood, an experimental gerontologist. His thought his that women live longer than men because women are less disposable. This is because of the importance of the female reproductive system. The women’s body must be strong and able to make healthy babies. The women must be strong enough to support another life during pregnancy and this contributes to why a women’s body is so strong and able to live longer.
Other studies suggest that women live longer then men because men tend to die from heart disease at an earlier age than women. “They’re protected from it until menopause, since their bodies churn out estrogen, which helps keep arteries strong and flexible”, says Dr. Legato. Men can develop heart disease as early as their 30s where it happens much later for women.
My favorite suggestion though as to why women live longer than men is because men are more likely to take an unsafe risk. According to the CDC unintentional injuries are the third leading cause of death in men, and According to Dr. Legato, the part of the brain that develops responsibility and risk calculation develops much slower in men than in women.
It seems as though there is no way to experimentally prove that women live longer than men, its just based on observational study. But if this picture is any indication, then I think the observations so far are correct!
Resources:
http://news.health.com/2014/10/13/why-do-women-live-longer-than-men/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-women-live-longer/?page=2
While these studies were observational, it’s hard to measure why, especially when each human evolves differently. This study used fruit flies to try to support the hypothesis that women live longer than men. To do this, they injected a group of fruit flies with mtDNA from five species of fruit flies around the world. This was the only common factor, and while they didn’t find that men typically lived longer, they’re lifespan varied far greater than the women’s. http://molanth204.blogspot.com/2012/09/dna-evidence-as-to-why-women-live_18.html
Both of these experiments I believe could be largely due to chance. Scientists need to find something concrete, whether it is a certain gene that all men have, to prove that their health deteriorates quicker than women as a whole. While the fly experiment had good intentions, the bodily functions of flies operate far different than humans.
Here are some questions as to why, if women do live longer, this could be the case. Do women take care of themselves better? Are there certain diseases that put men more at risk that have been known to kill men before they reach a certain age? Do women have super powers?
I took psychology in high school and at one point we discussed various differences between women and men. Of course at one point or another the question as to why women live longer than men surfaced. We discussed how although women are most likely to get emotional and over think things they actually have an overall stronger body. As you stated, men are more susceptible to fetal diseases and body malfunctions and therefore that is one reason for women typically living longer than men. We also discussed the part of your blog where you mentioned that men were more likely to take risks and do dangerous things that would negatively effect their health and physicality. I found an article that discusses some other theories as to why women might potentially live longer than men. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-women-live-longer/
I found this topic extremely interesting. I have always asked myself the question, “Why do women live longer than men?” I knew that men suffered heart attacks and other cardiovascular events at a much younger age than women, but I didn’t even think about that women have a longer lifespan because they have to bear children. I love that the one study said men live shorter than women because they tend to take foolish and unsafe risks. That is more of an inference or observation (not experimental), but it does make sense. I think the argument needs more scientific evidence to back up this claim. The link below from Huffington Post actually writes about other correlations to why women outlive men. They mention the ones above that you have written about in your blog, but the article also states that men have been smoking for a longer period of time. Even today, smoking is more common in males than females. Scientists still do not have a direct casual relationship between lifespan and gender, but they are constantly working on it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/why-women-live-longer-than-men_n_3696114.html
This is very interesting perspective on what people generally just accept as common knowledge