Women outlive genetically ‘disposable’ men

LONDON - In the ultimate battle of the sexes, women usually win.

Now scientists have come up with a theory to explain why woman live longer than men: men are more biologically “disposable”.

The controversial theory, developed by Professor Tom Kirkwood of the University of Newcastle, Britain, suggests that the female body is better at carrying out routine maintenance and keeping the body’s cells alive.

Kirkwood believes there is now growing evidence to suggest that men are more disposable than women, because the cells of their bodies are not genetically programmed to last as long as they are in females, reports the Daily Mail.

Many scientists believe that the aging process is caused by tiny faults throughout our body. As the tiny faults build up, the length of our lives is determined by how quickly our body is able to carry out running repairs.

As the cells miss opportunities to repair themselves, our body gradually degrades until we eventually die, according to the journal American Scientist.

Kirkwood’s theory behind why our cells do not mend every tiny problem in our body is that it is built into our DNA.

The reason we don’t live forever is because it would have cost our hunter-gatherer ancestors too much energy to constantly replenish cells when hunger was a more immediate danger, he says.

“Under the pressure of natural selection to make the best use of scarce energy supplies, our species gave higher priority to growing and reproducing than to living forever,” he writes.

This theory’s next logical step would suggest that women live longer because their bodies are less disposable than those of men, it makes more sense for the cells to put in more effort to correct any laws in the DNA, for example.

Even in the animal kingdom, female chimps live for an average of 59 years as against the 45 years for a male.

Among killer whales, males live for a maximum of 60 years but females have a span of 90 years. Male mosquito dies within a week, while females survive a month.