Healthier lifestyles let women live longer

From the jungle gym to geriatric ward, the maxim "girls rule, boys drool" has basis in scientific fact, a BU researcher suggests, as women tend to carry better genes and maintain healthier life habits than men.

Among centenarians -- those who have reached the coveted 100-year-old milestone -- 85 percent are women and only 15 percent are men, said Thomas Perls, a Boston University associate professor of geriatrics and director of the New England Centenarian Study.

Women tend to have an average life expectancy of three or four years longer than men because they tend to develop heart attacks and strokes 10 years later than men, as they enter into menopause.

"It's only after women go through menopause that their mortality rates become similar to men," he said.

Though scientists once considered estrogen a contributing factor in women's longevity, studies have since shown it may no longer play such an important role, Perls said. Instead, the relatively low iron levels in women due to menstruation could be the key to living longer.

Perls said he thinks iron may set cellular activity into motion that damages cells and DNA.

"This may be as simple as less iron," he said. "[It] means a bit of an advantage for women."

Another advantage lies with women's additional X chromosome, Perls said. Since on any given cell, the genes have a choice of two chromosomes on which to express themselves, the second X chromosome serves as a backup for women - but men are not so lucky.

"They clearly win this longevity marathon overwhelmingly, so it is very interesting to see why such a dramatic advantage," he said.

Pearls added that genetics is not the only determinant of lifespan lifestyles men and women choose to lead, Perls said.

Perls, who said he views the centenarians he studies as a model of healthy aging, offers students an acronym for healthy aging: In AGEING, "A" is for attitude, "G" for genetics, "E" for exercise, "I" for interest, "N" for nutrition and "G" for "Get rid of smoking" and "Get rid of anti-aging quackery."

Student Health Services director David McBride said he notices students tend to hold onto their poor health practices from college long after they graduate.

"If one chooses to live a life of making unwise choices, that pattern may well be carried into their older years," he said.

Rebecca Noonan, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said she thinks individual choices factor into the equation as well.

"If one does not make healthy choices, then one can expect to not live as long regardless of gender," she said.

Though her lifestyle of daily exercise and a healthy diet would lead to a long, healthy life, Noonan is not as interested in living long as she is with the quality of her life, she said.

"I would be perfectly willing to die in my 30s as long as I have lived my life well and left an impact behind," she said. "It is not worth dwelling on how long one will live."