Why do women live longer than men

The age old question of why women live longer than men has long been studied by researchers around the world, and while no definitive reason as to why this happens to be the case in nearly all developed countries (with women outliving men by an average of 5-10 years) a number of strong theories have been developed as to what the cause may be. Currently there are two primary considerations many people look at for the cause of this occurring: environmental and biological.

Environmental

Lifestyle and personal habits are believed to be the primary factor for enabling individuals to live long, fulfilling lives in many cases, with one of the primary factors being that women traditionally have a much lower iron content in their blood than men thanks to regular menstruation and different dietary habits. Iron has been shown to be a primary factor in causing individuals to develop long-term health conditions and significantly increase the risk of both heart attack and stroke, something that women traditionally put off the risk of developing an average of 10 years long than men in nearly all cases. This is generally believed to be because of both the relative lack of blood loss faced by men in many cases as well as the fact that men, on average, consume more red meats and other foods high in iron than women do.

Additionally men are more prone to exposing themselves to social hazard such as smoking and other reckless behavior in their lives than women, damaging their cellular structures at an early age and preventing them from outliving their female counterparts.

Genetic

Many scientists also feel that genes play an important role in determining our age, with the fact that women possess dual X chromosomes while men carry both an X and a Y being a primary factor. As our cells age our DNA strands become damaged in various ways, causing specific chromosome strands to be damaged unequally. In the case of women they have a “backup” chromosome that allows for cellular differentiation to continue on properly even if one strand were to become damaged while men would simply lose specific sets of chromosomes, thus stunting their body’s ability to repair itself and function long into the later years of life.

One factor previously thought to bolster age that has now been debunked, it should be noted, is that women’s estrogen levels assist them in living longer lives. This has now been proven to not be the case, and many researchers actually feel that providing post-menopausal women with estrogen supplements may actually stunt their longevity due to an artificial supplement being kept within their body’s system long after many cellular systems have prepared to eliminate the need for it.