Tuesday, November 21, 2017

HEALTH SPECIAL.... Which is the stronger sex?

Which is the stronger sex?

Although the male is physically stronger because of his hormonal make-up and musculature, as far as diseases are concerned, the female is the stronger sex

As a young house physician at a public teaching hospital, I worked in a large Out Patient Department, and it never failed to amaze me that the majority of patients there were females. Even today at the free OPD that I service for indigent patients, I point out to my juniors that it is difficult to find a male in the long lines outside the door. When I used to finish my OPD shifts as a student physician, I would walk back to my room and see many young burqa-clad females sitting in the garden, playing with their young children and buying them snacks from the roadside vendor. What perfect bonding, I thought.
But I also found it difficult to understand the many medical problems the women faced. They seemed innocuous and insignificant, hardly the type to stand in long lines for to see specialist physicians in public hospitals. After my first few months in the OPD, I asked the senior physician which diseases most of these women suffered from. He enlightened me, saying many of them were young housewives who, with their imaginary complaints, had played hooky from home. They regularly proffered the excuse that the doctor had summoned them, leaving no room for argument and leaving their mothers-inlaw to do the housework.
In any event, much of medicine is good history-taking, and I find this much easier to do with the male, who tends to be direct and precise.
Females, on the other hand, are more verbose and cloud their important symptoms in so many non-consequential statements that the impact on the physician is lost. I remember once reading an article that heart disease in women was more common than one thought a decade or two ago. The authors made it clear that physicians ignored their real symptoms, which were wrapped in so much jargon that their significance was lost.
Females live longer than men, and their bodies are better at fixing wear and tear because they need to have healthy offspring. In the UK, on average women live 4.2 years longer than the male. In the past, this gap used to be 6 years, and it has long been postulated that female hormones may prevent certain diseases in women. Research from Ghant University in Belgium also tells us that females not only live longer than males, but are more able to withstand shock, sepsis, infection or trauma. Women have two X chromosomes in their genetic make-up, and it is in this chromosome that 10 per cent of the micro RNA (genetic protein acid) is found. This seems responsible for important functions like maintaining immunity and fighting cancer.
But then are certain situations where the woman is more frequently affected. According to the American Headache Society, women experience migraines more frequently than men. Before puberty, both males and females are almost equally matched for migraine, but after puberty, migraines affect females at almost thrice the rate of males. Then there is arthritis; rheumatoid arthritis and its sister diseases affect females more than men. Asthma in midlife appears a little more common in females. And eating disorders and mental depression are other maladies that are more common in females.
Researchers are quick to point out that female hormonal influence may be responsible, but this may not exclusively be true. Several decades ago, heart disease was much more rampant in males. Of late, however, the female has been catching up, though studies show that heart disease develops seven to 10 years later in females than in males.
So, although the male is physically the stronger sex because of his build, hormonal make-up and musculature, it certainly seems that as far as diseases are concerned, the female is the stronger sex, barring a few instances. In several conditions, however, women are rapidly catching up.

MM 14NOV17 

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