Menstruation helps women live longer than men

A recent study analyzed the reasons why men live shorter lives than women from five aspects: diet, mentality, sun protection, and menstruation. Researchers have released a report on male life expectancy, which suggests men are not as strong as we think. Due to pressure from all sides, men's life expectancy is still continuously shortening and men's health is facing unprecedented threats.

This latest survey does not give the difference in life expectancy between men and women, but only says that the risk of death among young and middle-aged men is three times higher than that of women. According to survey statistics from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Organization over the years, men's life expectancy is on average 5 to 10 years shorter than women's, and in some countries, this gap is increasing year by year.

For example, in our country, men lived one year less than women in the 1970s, two years less in the 1980s, four years less in the 1990s, and five years less in the 21st century. In the United States, general statistics show that men live seven years shorter than women, and in Russia, men live 10 years shorter than women.

Why do men live shorter lives than women?

Why do men live shorter lives than women? This is a constant topic and fact since human evolution. There is a saying that goes like this: Men don't shed tears easily, men don't like to talk, men don't go to see a doctor when they are sick, and men don't want to return home. In fact, these conclusions are far from enough, because the factors that cause men to live shorter lives than women also include men’s other personality, physiological characteristics and social pressures. For example, men have a high basal metabolic rate, like to show off, have a bad lifestyle, are competitive, adventurous, have a bad temper, and are alcoholics, etc.

1. Eating too much will shorten your life

There are some natural physiological differences between the two sexes. Men's basal metabolism is 5%-7% higher than women's, which means that their energy consumption is higher than women. As early as the 1930s, scientists conducted an experiment using mice. They did not provide one group of mice with sufficient food, only ensuring that they had the nutrition necessary for survival. Another group of mice was provided with sufficient food and allowed to eat as much as they could freely. The results showed that the bones of the mice in the free-feeding group stopped growing after 175 days, while the bones of the mice in the restricted-feeding group were still growing slowly after 500 days. The average lifespan of the mice in the free-feeding group was only 2.5 years, while the lifespan of the mice in the restricted-feeding group was 3-4 years. Researchers believe that less food intake will produce fewer damaging free radicals, which will reduce damage to human DNA and cells, thereby slowing down aging. This may explain why men who eat more always live shorter lives than women who eat less.

Compared with women, men's lifestyle is neither scientific nor healthy. For example, men like to smoke and drink, but cigarettes and alcohol have become the most vicious killers of human life and health in modern society, and the harm to men is far greater than that to women. The life expectancy of men in my country is much lower than that of women, and vodka plays an important role in this. In addition, men's eating habits are often to eat quickly or overeat frequently, so the incidence of stomach problems in men is 6.2 times higher than that in women on average. Moreover, men generally eat more fat and protein foods than women. Studies have shown that eating too much fat and protein is an important cause of rectal cancer. At the same time, quite a lot of men do not pay attention to sun protection and skin cancer checks, so men are twice as likely to die from melanoma as women.

3. Menstruation exercises women’s tolerance

Compared with men, women like to cry more, but if men shed tears easily, they will be regarded as weak, unmanly and not strong. Therefore, men dare not shed tears, which has a huge impact on their health and life expectancy. Crying not only relieves stress and eases emotions, but also physiologically helps to excrete toxic substances through tears. The result of a man not daring to shed tears is of course that his health condition will deteriorate, which will have negative effects over time.

In addition, women's special physiological phenomena also determine that women have high tolerance and strong survival ability. For example, women's monthly menstruation trains women's tolerance, especially the ability to survive disasters. Under the conditions of not eating or drinking and losing the same amount of blood, men may die several days or even earlier than women, while women are more likely to hold on until the arrival of rescuers and thus successfully survive the disaster.

The male hormone in men's blood is an important reason for their irritability, aggressiveness and competitiveness. In times of war, there are many men going to the battlefield, which makes it easy to understand why more men have short lives, because war takes the lives of a large number of men. However, in modern peacetime, men's competitive character is also an important cause of their untimely deaths, and thus their life expectancy is shorter than that of women. For example, men are twice as likely as women to die in car accidents due to competitiveness and drunk driving.

A survey in Sweden showed that 70% of casualties on highways were caused by male drivers, and 60% of traffic accidents in cities were caused by male drivers. Traffic accident statistics in Spain show that the ratio of male and female drivers involved in traffic accidents is 60% to 40%. Statistics from other EU countries and the United States show that male drivers are more likely to be involved in traffic accidents, at around 70%, while female drivers only account for around 30%.

The reason is that the male hormone in the male body is at work, which often stimulates men to show off their abilities. While overtaking, they also get a sense of satisfaction psychologically: Look, my driving skills are so superb, the other party is just a fool, with poor skills, but still insists on occupying the road. The result of this is often a collision with a normally traveling vehicle in front while overtaking, resulting in the destruction of the vehicle and death of people. Women are just the opposite in this regard and are almost unlikely to get into trouble. The direct victims of car accidents are drivers, so there are far more male premature deaths than female premature deaths.

5. Attitude determines life expectancy

The biggest reason why men are unwilling to return home is that society requires men to be upright and self-reliant. In order to succeed and to support their families, men must work and make overtime efforts. Moreover, whether at work or at home, men are required to maintain appearances. Therefore, men work more stressful jobs than women and have to bear greater pressure than women. Therefore, the proportion of men suffering from myocardial infarction and being hospitalized is 7-10 times that of women.

Finally, men's attitudes toward their own health and bodies affect how long they live. A survey in the United States shows that 82% of men regularly maintain their cars, but only 50% of men have regular physical examinations. This results in men not being aware of minor illnesses, enduring moderate illnesses, and dying suddenly from major illnesses. If men can detect abnormalities in their bodies in time and receive timely diagnosis and treatment, the incidence and mortality rates can be greatly reduced.

Although it is an indisputable fact that men live shorter lives than women, as long as men today follow the four principles of healthy living, they may be able to prolong their lives and even live longer than women. These four principles are reasonable diet, moderate exercise, smoking cessation and alcohol restriction, and psychological balance.