Women generally live loner than men. Most people think in a layman concept that as men work hard for providing bread and butter to their families, so they suffer from many types of stress, anxieties and diseases, and die earlier than women. On the other hand, most of the women work in homes and do not take that much pressure those of men, and hence live longer than men. But this is not true. The scientific reasons are totally different.
The reason for women outliving men has been put down to the possibility that the cells of male bodies are not genetically programmed to last as long as those of the females. A new research published in the magazine ‘Scientific American’ has put forwarded reasons for why women have longer life in comparison to men. The study was led by Professor Tom Kirkwood, a leading Gerontologist at the University of Newcastle, USA. He gives evidence that the cells in the bodies of the males are genetically so developed that they cannot survive longer, as do the cells of females can. Professor Kirkwood associated a theory called “disposable soma” with the shorter life of men as compared to women. As per his theory, the genes can live forever by being transmitted on to successive generations. Body is mortal, which need continuous repairing like a car. As with the time flaws occur within the cells and tissues. The mortality depends on the body’s ability to rectify the faults.
Prof. Kirkwood expressed that the body of a female is vital due to her reproductive abilities and as she has to develop an infant inside her womb. If her body receives harms, she won’t be able to give birth to healthy offspring. On the other hand, the reproductive part played by men is not much influenced by continued good health.
The laboratory experiments carried out by Professor Kirkwood on animals showed that female species possessed better maintenance and repair systems, as compared to their male counterparts. This is the reason women live longer than men.