The Longevity Gap Between Men and Women Is Getting Bigger. Here’s Why.

Take a leisurely walk around any retirement community and you’re bound to see some real gender imbalance, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. New research out of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and UC San Francisco found that the gap between how long men live and how long women live has been widening for more than a decade.

As of 2021 (the latest year there’s data for), women live an average of 5.8 years longer than men. That’s up a year from 2010 and making the gender longevity gap the largest it’s been since 1996.

The researchers were able to pinpoint the reasons why. The biggies: cardiovascular disease, cancer, opioid use, and suicide. COVID didn’t help matters either. At least 65,000 more men have died from the virus than women. This is primarily due to the fact that men are more likely to be homeless, locked up, and work in occupations putting them at higher risk for contracting the virus.

While certainly no one can fully control how long they live, there’s plenty you can do to avoid an untimely death and live a long, healthy life.

You Need to Protect Your Heart (Your Actual Heart)

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S., making it a pretty good place to start decreasing the longevity gap. “I was shocked to see that the risk for cardiovascular disease is 80% higher for men than for women,” says Alan Charles Geller, MPH, RN, one of the co-authors for the longevity gender gap study and a Senior Lecturer on Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Geller explains that a big reason for this is that more men use tobacco than women—including vaping, which is still bad news for your heart. Vaping nicotine causes blood vessels to narrow, which increases blood pressure and heart rate. This puts stress on the heart and can eventually lead to a heart attack or stroke. Vaping weed increases blood pressure too, which means it also ups the risk for heart disease.

But it’s not just tobacco use that’s making men more likely to experience heart problems (and untimely deaths) than women. Geller says that men are more likely to experience obesity than women, which also is a risk factor. Nearly one in three men are considered to be medically overweight, compared to one in four women. One reason for this is that men and women have different metabolic responses to food intake; men have higher levels of triglycerides, free fatty acids, and insulin after a meal than women. Some evidence also points to women being more motivated to lose weight than men and being more likely to join weight loss programs, take prescription weight loss drugs, and stick with a plant-forward eating plan than men.

Contrary to what it may sound like, all of this is actually pretty encouraging. That’s because it’s a problem that can be fixed. According to the World Heart Federation, 80% of heart attacks and strokes are preventable through diet and lifestyle habits.

What’s the deal with the 20% out of your control? Matt Kaeberlein, PhD, a renowned biologist who studies longevity, says that estrogen seems to have some protective properties against heart disease and stroke, putting women at a naturally lower risk. On top of that, Dr. Kaeberlein says there’s a theory that since women have two X chromosomes (while men only have one), having a “backup copy” may provide some extra protection for immune and metabolic health.

Yes, That Weird Mole On Your Back Needs to Be Looked At

Geller says that his research has unearthed something else that surprised him: Men die significantly more from melanoma than women. He says that the reason why this stuck out to him is because, when caught early, melanoma deaths are rare. “Two out of every three melanoma deaths are in men. This is so fascinating because it is more due to behavior than biology,” Geller says.

What does he mean? Women are more likely to wear sunscreen, for one. Women are more likely to be proactive about their health too—including getting suspicious moles checked out by their derm. One-third of men don’t get annual check-ups and 55% of men don’t see a doctor for regular health screenings. If you want to lower your risk of melanoma—a cancer that more men are dying of than women—wear sunscreen, check your body for any changing moles, and if anything does look suspicious, see a doctor about it. It sounds simple, but it just might save your life.

Men Are Still Struggling to Get Mental Health Help

The outdated stigma against men asking for help has dire consequences. The Harvard longevity paper shows that suicide and the opioid epidemic are two huge drivers of untimely deaths in men.

Christine Yu Moutier, MD, the Chief Medical Officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, says there are both biological and social reasons why more men die by suicide than women. Dr. Moutier points out that men are bigger risk-takers than women. She says they’re also more likely to struggle with impulse control. “This is a big factor when it comes to suicide risk, because many people have had suicidal thoughts cross their mind—but actually going through with it may have something to do with impulse control,” she says.

Mental health and addiction expert and licensed clinical psychologist Kevin Gilliland, PsyD, says that while millennial and younger generations of men are getting better about talking about their mental health, it’s still not happening at the level that it should.

Some of this is for the reasons you probably expect: Men are more likely to feel an external pressure to appear strong, not to talk to their friends as much about how they’re doing, and are less likely to see a therapist than women. Women are also more likely to take medication for their mental health than men. But Dr. Moutier says that depression can also look different in men than in women, which is why it can often go undetected in men. She explains that, often, depression in men manifests as anger. (You may have a colleague or a buddy who seems to snap easily. His “rage problem” could actually be a symptom of depression.)

Both Dr. Moutier and Dr. Gilliland say that men are more likely to abuse alcohol than women, which also increases the risk of suicide. “Alcohol is a depressant. It disrupts our mood and sleep,” Dr. Gilliland says of the link between alcohol use and depression. “Alcohol, pot, eating excessively, working excessively, and working out excessively can all relieve stress in a temporary way, but it doesn’t get to the root problem,” he adds.

Heart disease, cancer, suicide, and opioid use are not the only reasons why men are living shorter lives than women (homicides is another), but they are the big ones. While not every untimely death is preventable, a lot of the ones that fall within these buckets are.

So you want to live longer? Take care of your body, take care of your mind, and take care of each other.

Originally Appeared on GQ