Why Women Live Longer than Men - Essay Example

Why Women Live Longer Than Men Historically, it has been known to us that on an average women tend live longer than a man. Time and again the gap between women and male populations do fluctuate but in general, the average life span of a healthy female is known to be greater than an average healthy male. In fact this trend not only prevalent among humans but is also known to exist among other animals as well where the female survives longer than the male. For centuries, this has baffled researchers since paradoxically even though women have shown longer lifespan, they are the ones who suffer from health problems when compared to men. Basically the question about the longevity of life being higher among females may be attributed to the human biological system solely however there have been advanced research in several different areas that have established that the reason behind the longer lifespan of women cannot solely be explained by biology alone. Fields of psychology, nutrition and even sociology have found empirical evidence about the contributions of several other non-biological factors that affects the health and lifespan of men and women. Even the field of genetics does play a pivotal role in this as well. Therefore, even though the longevity of the life span of a female is attributed to biology alone, it is the amalgamation of several other psychological, sociological and nutritional factors that has an effect on the biology and ultimately leads to either increasing or decreasing the life expectancy of an individual. The Biology of Women Living Longer When it comes to understanding the basic reason for a longer life, immediately most individuals end up thinking solely about the reason from a biological perspective. It is true that biology perhaps plays the most important role for increasing the life span of an individual. There are several biological factors that are held responsible for upgrading the quality of health and life and simply sticking to one factor cannot appropriately explain the reason for difference in longevity based on gender. The health of the heart is crucial for maintaining health since it is the heart that sustains life and its ability to pump blood throughout the body that helps to sustain life. Research has shown that women, especially in the second half of their menstrual cycle and during their pregnancy show an increased cardiac output by almost 20%. The challenges that females face during pregnancy is compared to good exercise which helps in strengthening the heart naturally without addition effort from the female (Eskes and Haanen, 2007). This helps in lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases in females whereas males have no such natural means of strengthening their heart. Recently, research in the fields of genetics has shown to make remarkable contributions in understanding the reason behind women living longer than men. According to geneticists the secret lies in the chromosomal composition of males and females. They regard the female chromosomal constitution and the preponderance of the life-guard telomeres on the chromosomes during cell division as one of the main genetic reasons behind longevity (Eskes and Hannen, 2007). According to other reeachers the X chromoskme co ntains more information than the Y chromosome. Since female shave XX and male shave XY chromosome the information in the female genome is considered to be greater than that encoded in male genome. In fact to some geneticists the male genome is almost black. This gives the females a genetic advantage over the males. The presence of an X chromosome enables females to use the immunological system of both their parents while males have only one X chromosome from the mother and hence has to do with immunological coding from just a single X chromosome (Graney, 1979) Some biologists think that hormonal evidences can help explain the reason behind higher life expectancy in the females. In case of females, hormones such as estrogen is produced in higher proportions than androgens while in case of males, androgens are produced in a higher quantity than estrogen. Androgens, especially testosterone is known to raise blood pressure of the body and increase the level of low density lipoproteins (LDL) in the body. This often causes heart problems and other health effects. On the other hand estrogens help in the production of the good cholesterol or high density lipoproteins and immunoglobins. This helps the female body to become much stronger naturally and fight stresses better than a body of a male (Waldron, 1976). Another important factor that adds to the longevity of the female lifespan is the process of immunosenescence which has the ability to impair vital immunological functioning of the human body. To establish this, Caruso et al conducted an investigation among Japanese citizens to establish a relation between immunological changes and lifespan. The researchers collected peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 365 Japanese individuals. The blood samples were analyzed and the number of lymphocytes were analyzed using flow cytometry. The cytokine producing ability of T cells was also analyzed. After observing the blood samples the authors concluded that there exists an intricate relation between lifespan and state of immunological health in males and females. The difference observed in the various immunological parameters was a result of slow biological aging among women when compared to that of men which subsequently resulted in a slower declination of immunological functioning of the body in females. This helped to establish that with age the immunity of females was intact compared to their male counterparts (Caruso et al, 2013). Nutritional Reasons Social and Psychological reasons Humans live in a closely linked society and is bound to be affected by various societal factors. Social behavior and psychology of a person has severe implications on a person’s life expectancy. The reason for putting social and psychological reasons together is that both are intricately associated to each other. Mortality based on sex difference is known to be more in case young males than older males even though life expectancy also differs between older individuals. Young males are more hot blooded and are attracted to risky behaviors such that they are more prone to be involved in risk taking activities (Kung et al, 2008). These could include rash driving, risky recreational activities and other risky behaviors when compared to their female counterparts. Most men have a tendency to live a risky life which is perhaps a result of their masculine mindset. Sociocultural factors may also account as to why women live longer. Wallace conducted an investigation to see the reason as to why female live much longer. He interviewed 507 equally aged college goers using a semi structured questionnaire (Wallace, 1996). He analyzed his findings and concluded that women took much better care of their health and engaged in less risky activities whereas their male counterparts did not care much about life and felt that engaging in risky behavior helped them live in a fuller manner. Comparison of Factors Overall, problems associated to health and psychological wellbeing of males is considered to be much more inferior to that of females. Even though females are more prone to diseases while men are regarded to be immunological and mentally much stronger, evidence prove otherwise. When we compare the various contributing factors between the male and the female body we will be able to observe considerable difference between the two. For example, cardiovascular problems may affect both equally but owing to the lifestyle preferred by males, the rate of cardiovascular problems and heart relate diseases is much greater in males than in females. Again, if we look at the demographics of cancer, we will notice that even though cancer can equally afflict individuals irrespective of their gender, death from cancer is higher in males than in females. In fact male mortality rates is almost 30%-40% higher in males than in females. However again, lifestyle choices such as cigarette smoking and drinking comes in owing to which the risk of cancer onset among males is much higher than that of females. From psychological perspective, men are known to suffer from mental problems and are more likely to commit suicide. In fact sociological factors also affect psychological state of a person and women have a higher ability to bear them than males and hence these factors have a greater impact on the male than on the female. Conclusion References Caruso,C et al (2013). Sex, gender and immunosenescence: a key to understand the different lifespan between men and women? Immunity and Ageing, 10, 20. Eskes, T and Haanen, C.(2007). Why do women live longer than men? European journal of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive biology. M.J. Graney (1979). "An Exploration of Social Factors Influencing the Sex Differential in Mortality." Social Symposium, 28, 1-26 Kung HC, Hoyert DL, Xu J, Murphy SL. Deaths: Final Data for 2005. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2008;56(10):1–124. Wallace,J.E. (1996). Gender differences in beliefs of why women live longer than men. . Psychological Reports, 79 (2) :587-591. Waldron,I. (1976). "Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?" Social Science and Medicine, 10, 349-362. Read More