Monday, January 17, 2005

We've Got Heart

I thought this study in the Economist article is very interesting:

WOMEN live longer than men. It is unfair, but true. In developed countries, the average difference is five or six years. In the poor world the gap is smaller, owing to the risks of childbirth. But nowhere is it absent. The question is, why?
That question can be answered at two levels. An evolutionary biologist would tell you that it is because women get evolutionary bonus points from living long enough to help bring up the grandchildren. Men, by contrast, wear themselves out competing for the right to procreate in the first place. That is probably true, but not much help to the medical profession. However, a group of researchers at John Moores University, in Liverpool, England, has just come up with a medically useful answer. It is that while 70-year-old men have the hearts of 70-year-olds, those of their female peers resemble the hearts of 20-year-olds.


Very interesting to know, although good news for my male brethren the effects can be mitigated by exercise and a healthy diet.

I'm blogging a lot today because I fear that once classes start (tomorrow) entries will be scarce, plus I felt that today was a pretty stimulating day.


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