Vim & Vigor - Fall 2017 - Gwinnett Medical Center - 39

TRUE OR FALSE:

Men die sooner because they
engage in riskier behavior.

TRUE. When it comes to diet and
smoking, men historically have been
bigger risk takers. That puts them at
greater risk of deadly lung and heart
diseases. But that's been less true in
modern times, when women began
adopting those risks, too.
"Smoking, early on in the 1900s, was
mainly a male hobby," Beltran-Sanchez
says. "That changed in the 1950s or
'60s." That said, men are still more likely
to smoke than women; nearly 17 in 100
American men smoke, while nearly 14 in
100 American women do.

TRUE OR FALSE:

Biological differences put
women at an advantage.

COULD BE TRUE. Heart disease
historically has lowered survival rates
for men. That's because men are more
vulnerable to cardiovascular damage
and women are more resistant, BeltranSanchez says. Scientists are still looking
for a clear-cut reason for this advantage,
though cholesterol plays a role. Studies
have shown that before women reach
menopause, estrogen increases good
cholesterol and decreases so-called bad
cholesterol.

TRUE OR FALSE:

Women live longer because of
hormonal differences.

MAYBE. Some scientists hypothesize that estrogen helps lower mortality
rates up until menopause. Mortality
rates among women do rise more

WOMEN LIVE LONGER
WORLDWIDE
While it's true that women have longer life expectancies than men everywhere
in the world, it's also true that life expectancies vary widely among countries.
According to the World Health Organization's Global Health Observatory
data, Japan, Switzerland and Singapore have the longest life expectancies in the
world. In Japan, men can expect to live to be 80.5 years old, on average. For
women, that extends to 86.8 years.
But life expectancy is drastically lower in many African countries. Take Sierra
Leone: Women can expect to live only 50.8 years-and they, too, outlive their
male counterparts.
Why? Child survival rates matter, as does access to medical care and
prevalence of disease. In the 1990s, for example, life expectancies fell in Africa
because of the AIDS epidemic. The impact on the life span of residents of
many African countries was enough to push average expectancies down for
the globe. Things that developed countries such as the United States often take
for granted, like access to clean drinking water that's free of contamination,
also affect life expectancy.

WEBSITE

sharply after menopause, but they
don't keep pace with mortality rates
of men. Beltran-Sanchez says that
although researchers are exploring
this, the link hasn't been proved.

TRUE OR FALSE:

Longevity is increasing for
men, too, and the life-span
difference between men and
women is narrowing.

TRUE. "Women are doing worse;
now it looks like men and women are
catching up," Beltran-Sanchez says.
Men still are more likely to die at
younger ages. But because behavior
differences between men and women
aren't as severe anymore-women are
taking risks, too- their average life
spans also will look more similar. This
is especially true for white women, for
whom life expectancy is going down.

Stay in the Know
You can explore the latest
health news from around the
world, as well as learn about a
variety of health topics, with
Gwinnett Medical Center's
Health (e) Library at
gwinnettmedicalcenter.org/
healthnews.

(Researchers think it's driven in part
by rising suicide rates, alcohol and
drug poisonings, and liver disease.)
"Things are changing so much,"
Beltran-Sanchez says, "I'm not sure
how much longer we're going to keep
seeing this large female advantage." ■

FAL L 2017

39
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