When the times are rough the women survive better
Women do outlive men by years. In some countries by decades. Women do have naturally a more durable organism straight from the time of birth. And women tend to do better even during crisis like famine or epidemics.
An old woman from Kyrgyzstan - Source: Wikimedia Commons
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Women are leaders in longevity. Even the oldest person that ever lived was a woman. It was Jeanne Calment that died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. The reasons for why women tend to live longer than man are many. Often it is the lifestyle of men. Russia is a good example of this. The average life expectancy of women in Russia is 76.3 years but only 64.7 for men. This is caused, among other reasons, by the high alcohol consumption.
A new study of an international team of scientists led by James Vaupel from the Duke University also suggests that women seem to have a more durable organism. Even young girls have a better chance to survive and live longer than boys. The differences can even be seen before puberty starts. Vaupel’s team focused on mortality data from seven different counties from the past 250 years in situations when the population was facing hard times. For example, they watched the mortality rate for slaves during the start of the 19th century in the USA and in Trinidad. They also were interested in the mortality rates during famines that happened from the 18th to 20th in Sweden, Ireland, and Ukraine or the mortality rate of Islanders during the measles epidemic in 1846 and 1882.
In all the crisis studied by Vauple’s team women tended to do much better than boys. The average lifespan of girls was higher by 4 months in the lowest case up to 6 years in the highest case compared to boys lifespans. For example. The average lifespan of girls during the famine that happened in 1933 was about 11 years. Boys born at the same time had an average lifespan of about 7 years. In crisis situation boys also had a bigger chance to die as a baby. The results of this study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences imply that the average lifespan difference cannot be attributed only to differences in behavior but also seems to have a biological cause.
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Nice pic
Women is the haf part of the world