Why do women live longer than men? Because men have to support their families, and men are under great pressure... But now that men and women are equal, and everyone has to make money to support their families, why do women still live longer? Professor Thomas Kirkwood of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, recently published An article in "Scientific American" surprisingly tells us that testosterone is not a very good thing for the continuation of male life... Could it be said that male hormones are the best for male longevity?
Actually, this topic is a long story.
Maybe you don’t believe it, but male hormones were first considered to be a panacea that can rejuvenate your youth. In 18****, at the age of seventy-two, the famous former Harvard University professor Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard suddenly announced to the world that he had found the "rejuvenating essence" by injecting himself with it. Dog and guinea pig testicle extracts. Ironically, not only were others unable to replicate the miraculous efficacy of the "essence", but his "rejuvenation experiment" did not seem to be able to help him slow down his aging process. The professor died five years later, and his reputation in the scientific community was ruined.
In 1927, Fred Koch, a professor of physiological chemistry at the University of Chicago, extracted 20 milligrams of a mysterious substance from nearly 200 kilograms of bovine testicles. When they injected these substances into castrated animals, those animals miraculously regained their male characteristics. Later, people discovered that the "mysterious substance" was a lipid molecule and officially named it "testosterone." Testosterone is the main component of male hormones. Their concentration in male blood has a circadian rhythm. In addition to the testicles, the adrenal cortex also secretes a small amount. Through research, people have found that testosterone has a positive effect on strengthening men's muscles and other aspects of physical health, but it does not help extend men's lifespan.
Not only that, Anja C. Roden and others from the Mayo Clinic in the United States surprisingly found in a study published in The Journal of Immunology in 2004 that the presence of testosterone can suppress male individual immunity. System functionality and strength. After the testicles are removed from the mice, the mice's T cell levels will be significantly increased, which means that the immunity will be significantly improved. Testosterone suppresses the male immune system, impairing the male's own ability to repairNot as good as women. This shows that male testicles will only reduce the vitality of men.
Testosterone, like cortisol, suppresses the immune system. This explains why in many species males are more susceptible to disease than females and have higher mortality rates after contracting the disease. The suppression of immune mechanisms is not only reflected in the body's resistance to microorganisms, but also in its resistance to large parasites. Gadflies lay their eggs on the skin of deer and cattle. The hatched maggots crawl into the flesh of these animals before returning to the skin to make a small "nest" where they turn into flies. Reindeer in northern Norway are particularly troubled by this parasite, but it is significantly more severe in male deer than in female deer. On average, by the age of two, a male deer has twice as many gadfly "nests" as a female deer. However, the gadfly "nests" on the castrated male deer are similar to those on the female deer. Similar patterns are found when looking at many parasites. For example, they include the protozoan that causes Chagas disease, which is widely believed to be the cause of Darwin's chronic illness. While traveling in Chile, Darwin was bitten by the bug that transmits Chagas disease, and some of his subsequent symptoms were consistent with the disease. If Darwin had been a woman, he might not have had to spend so much time feeling sorry for himself.
Some previous research results have shown that neutral animals live longer, and castrated men also live longer than normal men. We might as well refer to a set of data: the average age of 20 well-known eunuchs (such as Sun Yaoting and Wei Zhongxian) in Chinese history is 71 years old (those who died normally), while the average age of 20 well-known generals (such as Chang Yuchun and Huo Qubing) He is only 58 years old. In the Ming Dynasty, which is relatively close to us, even the average life span of the emperor was only more than 40 years old! Did you find any characteristics? Although it is quite cruel, it is true that eunuchs without eggs lived longer. Can't accept this fact? Then let's turn it around, instead of talking about eunuchs, let's talk about pure men. In a survey of American professional athletes, American Life Insurance found that their average life expectancy is only 50 years old, and very few live long.
Why is this happening? Is it because God is jealous of talents and men are so miserable? No, you guessed wrong. The answer is: because the androgens in men's bodies far exceed those of women, and the body's self-repair ability is far lower than that of women. Since the childbearing process causes greater damage to a woman's body, the female body is better at self-repair than the male body, and this self-repairing skill is the greatest reliance on "longevity." Studies have found that female rats have a stronger body repair ability than male rats, but when the ovaries of female rats are removed, this difference disappears. In comparison, the male's role in reproduction is more like a "provider." What characteristics does this kind of provider need? Tall, tough, and masculine.The human touch can protect your spouse from harm. But this also means higher levels of testosterone.
In today's society, the average life span of women is 6 years longer than that of men. The ratio of men to women over 85 years old is 4:6, and there are more than twice as many women over 100 years old than men! Is this because men and women live different lives? Not entirely, it also has something to do with the difference in androgen levels in men and women. Great relationship. Under optimal conditions, testosterone levels in men should exceed estrogen. However, as men age, testosterone secretion decreases and estrogen levels increase at the same time. According to surveys, looking at estrogen levels alone, at the age of 54, The man actually outperformed the fifty-nine-year-old woman. It is this disruption of the balance between sex hormones that makes middle-aged and elderly men susceptible to "androgen deficiency syndrome."
Therefore, although the current research results suggest that testosterone may be the culprit causing men's "short life", this is not necessarily the entire reason for men's short life. In men's bodies, testosterone and estrogen exist at the same time, but the proportions are different in men and women. The delicate balance between the two is like a person's two legs, both are indispensable, and together they support the health and vitality of the human body.