Why do females live longer than males?

Posted on 5. May 2009 by Vincent Giuliano

It has long been known that females tend to outlive males.  I have only to look at my own family’s history to see how that kept happening.  And apparently this also happens in a variety of other species as well. People have asked me “why?”  The best explanation seems to have to do with hormones and our old friends: longevity genes, antioxidants and mitochondria.  In this paper, the Spanish authors trace the phenomenon to “the beneficial action of estrogens, which bind to estrogen receptors and increase the expression of longevity-associated genes, including those encoding the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. As a result, mitochondria from females produce fewer reactive oxygen species than those from males.”  Looking at rats, “Oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA in males is 4-fold higher than that in females(ref).”  Also see ref.  Estrogens are not particularly good for males.  However, I speculate we males might get some of the same longevity benefits by taking anti-oxidant combinations that strongly affect the mitochondria, like Co Q-10, actyl-l-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid(ref).

About Vincent Giuliano

Being a follower, connoisseur, and interpreter of longevity research is my latest career. I have been at this part-time for well over a decade, and in 2007 this became my mainline activity. In earlier reincarnations of my career. I was founding dean of a graduate school and a university professor at the State University of New York, a senior consultant working in a variety of fields at Arthur D. Little, Inc., Chief Scientist and C00 of Mirror Systems, a software company, and an international Internet consultant. I got off the ground with one of the earliest PhD's from Harvard in a field later to become known as computer science. In various ways I contributed to the Computer Revolution starting in the 1950s and the Internet Revolution starting in the late 1980s. I am now engaged in doing the same for The Longevity Revolution. I have published something like 200 books and papers as well as over 350 blog entries and have enjoyed various periods of notoriety. If you do a Google search on Vincent E. Giuliano, most if not all of the entries on the first few pages that come up will be ones relating to me. I have a general writings site at www.vincegiuliano.com and an extensive site of my art at www.giulianoart.com.
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4 Responses to Why do females live longer than males?

  1. prophets says:
    5. May 2009 at 19:32

    what about isoflavones from soy? genistein from soy?

  2. admin says:
    6. May 2009 at 01:22

    Very interesting suggestions, prophet’s. Thanks for pointing it out. On the one hand, the estrogenic effect of genistein is reputed to be relatively weak, It is unclear whether this effect would enhance longevity in males via the pathway described above that normally works in women. Perhaps there might be some effect if someone consumed very large quantities of soy as is normal in some Asian countries. On the other hand soy isoflavones including genistein may ofer protection against cancers. Finally, genistein may have serious side effects. See http://www.sp.edu.sg/schools/cls/bioline_06.htm. On the whole I think it is fine to consume some soy products but I personally would hesitate to take concentrated soy isoflavones as a supplement

  3. Res says:
    8. May 2009 at 20:28

    Hi Vince

    FYI

    http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/longevity.htm

    There is a correlation between the size and the heart rate and the total heart beats and the life span of animals.

    I tried verymuch to see the heart rate and the resultant life span of storm petrels , without success.

    I wanted to see if the storm petrel beat this logic at all.

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