YAHOO! LIFE – About 85% of people 100 years or older are women, and only 15% are men. Once you get into supercentenarian territory (age 110 or older), that number increases to 90% women.
“While men are usually stronger, women live longer,” Dr. Naushira Pandya, professor and chair of the department of geriatric medicine at Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine, tells Yahoo Life.
“The difference can potentially be explained by biological traits, as well as social and cultural factors.”
Despite several reasons that reduce women’s overall longevity, like maternal mortality rates and lower socioeconomic status, women manage to live longer across the globe.
In the U.S. specifically, women live about six years longer than men. It’s a “puzzling paradox,” says Pandya.
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Still, experts say there are many reasons why women tend to live longer than men.
One factor may be female hormones. Estrogen has been shown to have many protective health benefits, from its positive effects on vascular health to boosting antioxidant and longevity-related genes.
It has also been linked to anti-inflammatory effects, particularly during times of raised estrogen production, such as pregnancy. And a 2020 cohort study found that postmenopausal estrogen therapy was associated with longer lifespans in older women.
“Estrogens in women reduce oxidative stress at a tissue level, as well as increase the more protective high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) and reduce low-density lipoproteins (LDLs),” says Pandya.
“Another contributing factor that may explain a longer lifespan in women is slower aging of the immune system.”
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Chromosomes may also come into play. New research published in Science Advances found that the second X chromosome in female mice might offer protective benefits in the brain as they age.
Beyond hormonal factors, evolution may also contribute to women’s longevity.
The “grandmother hypothesis,” while up for debate, suggests that women may have evolved to have long post-reproductive lives to help raise their grandchildren, increasing their chances of survival and allowing their daughters to have more children …