Longetivity: Why do women live longer than men?

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   Credence2posted 10 years ago

   I travel the information highway and stumble upon this interesting site, the list of living
   supercentenarians, those over the age of 110 years. I see that of 72 members on the list 70 are female and only 2 are men. This tendency is consistent regardless of geographic location or culture. Is it the Y chromosome? My theory is that  even though the women I know always seem to have more  physical ailments and affliction during middle age than the guys I know, women have an endurance, strength over time, that men lack. Geez, even Jack La Lane lived to only  99, and I thought that he would live forever with his physical daring-do, his juicers and such. Some of these long lived women never did a push up in their lives but survive far beyond 99 years. How and why, what is the secret, is it an innate gender advantage?  For obvious reasons, longevity is an interest of mine.  Check out the chart in Wikipedia, very interesting.
   
   There is also something that I have observed, Black American  women tend to live longer as they are found in numbers at the 110-116 years of age bracket at much higher frequency than expected given their percent of the general population. While the life expectancy of Blacks relative to whites here in the U.S. is less,  it appears that if a person of color, particularly female, can survive middle age their mortality relative to white females appears to fall at the extreme age brackets, why is that?. This is disadvantaged group generally, how have they won out in this realm of competition?
   
   The oldest living person is a Japanese woman who was born in March 1898.
   After this, the next one(no. 2) is a Yankee doodle dandy born on the 4th of July, 1898,  Ms Gertrude Weaver, an American black female. There are only 6 persons born before 1900 that still survive. From that list 3,4, are both black American women while No. 5 is an Anglo American female and no. 6 is an Italian lady . The second, third and the fourth oldest people in the world  are black women. I think that looking at data, this is more than coincidence. I have seen this trend a great deal in the past.
   
   There is a scholarly treatise or two on the topic
   
   What are your thoughts?

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      gmwilliamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Women are indeed more resilient than men.  They also have more emotional strength.  Women are able to endure many things that would break most men.  Women's bodies are built to endure more i.e. pregnancy and childbirth and one has to be strong in order to carry out a pregnancy and to bear children.
      
      Women are also more tolerant and patient than men are.  This tolerance and patience translates into mental strength and the ability to endure stress and many of life's foibles in a positive way.  Being positive is one of the ingredients to a long life.  I also would like to add that women have a far more altruistic nature than men. 
      
      P.S. Want to add that women tend to take care of themselves more than men do.  They go to the doctor and get regular check ups and follow up upon that.  Men tend to go to the doctor less than women.  They only go to the doctor when it is a dire emergency.  Taking care of oneself generally adds to longevity.
      Women tend to reach out to others whether they have problems or not.  Women tend to place more emphasis on relationships than do men.  Such components invaluably add to a long life.  Studies indicate that people who reach out to others and have positive relationships tend to live longer than those who don't.  Men tend not to reach out to others as much because such is still viewed as being needy i.e. not manly and tough.

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         John Holdenposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         What a load of sexist twaddle!
         
         I could as easily say that women outlive men because men work harder, but I wouldn't because there is no more evidence that that is the case than there is any evidence for your ideas.

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            gmwilliamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            There is EVIDENCE, substantive evidence of this!   
            
            

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               John Holdenposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               What? That men have shorter lives because they work harder?

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                  gmwilliamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  John, bless YOUR heart and have a nice day!
                  

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                     John Holdenposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Actually there is a lot of evidence tat testosterone reduces man's life.

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                     wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     When was the last time YOU packed 100# bags all day or spent your 8 hours climbing 200' towers?  When it comes to hard physical labor there are few women that can keep up with a male - simple fact of physiology whether we like to hear it or not.  Don't forget that most of the men dying today at 70 or 80 spent their life doing just that kind of work.

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   Sed-meposted 10 years ago

   Survival is our only recourse.

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   Sed-meposted 10 years ago

   Testosterone, our only recourse.

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