How do Japanese live this long?
- If it’s being close to nature, then many countries have beautiful isolated area from modern life.
- If it’s about diet, then what’s so special? African countries have simple and natural diet too, why doesn’t that work?
How do Japanese live this long?
I wonder what it is about being female. Maybe testosterone makes you stronger, but at the cost of living shorter. ☹️
Estrogen provides a great defense against heart disease, which is a huge killer. Now, this diminishes significantly after menopause, so it only explains things to a point.
Testosterone does increase risk of heart failure so that is certainly part of it.
Women are also more risk-averse. Risky living = high chance of dying https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/men-have-a-shorter-life-expectancy-than-women-thanks-to-their-genes-says-harvard-study/articleshow/99119402.cms
Significantly lower female suicide rate probably also helps. Especially when plenty of those suicides occur quite young. Low numbers drag down an average quite quickly.
My guess is that it’s more social than biological. Women have a tendency to form closer, more emotionally available, and more plentiful relationships with others – I believe partially due to hormones/brain development and partially due to culture. They’ve done studies that show that having strong social relationships is important to lower stress and loneliness, which can lead to a longer life. I’m not sure if that’s all of it but it definitely couldn’t hurt to work on those things :)
I suspect that is has to do with sexism. Risky jobs, hard labour, and fighting were traditionally things women weren’t allowed to do in many cultures. Their weaker physique makes most women unsuitable for certain life-shortening jobs too. Culturally, I believe men are also doing more stupid, risky shit in their youth, increasing the chances for life altering injuries dramatically.
I suspect we’ll see the age gap get smaller in fifty or sixty years with the progress we’re making. By that I mean women dying younger, not men living longer in comparison.
There are also other factors at play. Taller people die younger and women are usually shorter than men. Testosterone sucks for longevity and women have less of it. Not having a copy of everything on a second 𝕏 chromosome can also lead to issues in men (genetic things like colour blindness and various diseases, but also general long-term DNA survivability).
My theory that I just made up without any research or noteworthy knowledge on the topic is that women have a slower metabolism (which is related to hormones as their muscle mass and density is lower).
The slower your metabolism and your caloric intake the less cells are replicating. When cells are being replaced there’s always some degradation of genetic information involved. If you don’t require much energy and thus keep your metabolism low your body is under less pressure. It’s basically like a car with high mileage that has only seen constant slow long distance rides.