7 Reasons Men Die First  June 13, 2008 RSS Feed Print   •
Comment (13)  Popular culture may paint men as the stronger sex,
but from the moment a boy is born, his life is more likely than
his sister's to be cut short. Across national and cultural
boundaries, men die an average of seven years earlier than
women; the disparity in the United States is approximately five
years. In a new book, Why Men Die First, Marianne Legato, a
specialist in gender-specific medicine at Columbia University,
explains: They're genetically and biologically fragile to start
with, she says, and societal norms that encourage and even
demand risky behavior by men put them at risk. Still, Legato
told U.S. News, men and their families can push back. She
highlighted seven reasons why males die prematurely—and seven
actions they can take to prolong their time.  1. Males are
burdened with natural genetic deficits. While every cell in a
woman's body has two large X chromosomes, men have one X and one
smaller Y chromosome; the Y is half the si