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Genetics are to blame for men's low life expectancy
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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In almost every country, men live less than women. It is believed that this is due to bad habits (smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, etc.), as well as the male half of humanity's addiction to risks and dangers (for example, passion for motorcycles, dangerous sports, etc.).
However, experts have come to the conclusion that the cause of death in men is their body’s predisposition to severe heart and vascular diseases.
According to WHO data, the average modern person lives 71 years, but in any part of the world, from poor African regions to rich European countries, the male half of the population dies earlier - on average, men live 68 years, women - 73 years.
Eileen Crimmins, a specialist in the aging of living organisms, noted that scientists currently do not understand what exactly is the predisposition of the male sex to fatal diseases of the heart and blood vessels and why this situation persists, regardless of the level of medicine or a person’s income.
However, most scientists continue to associate the shorter life expectancy of men with bad habits and an attraction to adventurous situations.
Crimmins and his colleagues decided to conduct research in this area and establish what is really associated with life expectancy in men and women.
To do this, the research group analyzed mortality statistics that were kept from the end of the 19th century to the second third of the 20th century, when medicine made a significant step forward, especially in the area of preserving and prolonging human life. The statistics included data from thirteen developed countries, and specialists discovered several interesting facts during the study.
As it turns out, men and women lived about the same amount of time until the last decade of the 19th century. Then, women's mortality began to decline, while men's mortality remained virtually unchanged. As a result, men's risk of death is significantly higher between the ages of 50 and 70 than women's.
Such data prompted scientists to think that in the 20th century, men died more often from heart and vascular diseases than women. At the same time, the gap between the level of male and female mortality is increasing (about a hundred years ago, male mortality was 1.5 times higher, in the modern world - 3.5 times).
Even after the research team took into account external factors and bad habits, the gap in mortality rates still remained. According to experts, about 70% of male deaths occur because men's bodies are predisposed to developing fatal heart and vascular diseases, while external factors and bad habits are to blame for the remaining 30%.
A team of researchers led by Crimmins cannot say why women die less often from heart attacks, strokes and other heart or vascular pathologies, however, they suggested that it may be related to genetics or nutrition, but in order to test their guesses, scientists will need to conduct several more additional studies.
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