Health: Why Men Die Young

There's a reason women are healthier, and it's not entirely in their genes

Like most doctors, I'm painfully aware that women live longer than men--five years longer, on average. I used to accept the disparity, assuming it was part of our collective genetic inheritance, more nature than nurture. But a new study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health suggests that men's behavior may also be to blame.

According to David Williams, a senior research scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and the main author of the study, men outrank women in all of the 15 leading causes of death, except one: Alzheimer's. Men's...

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