More women than men are diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease (AD), according to Larry W. Baum (2005). Baum's review focuses on conflicting data from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in retrospective and prospective studies: in retrospective studies, HRT seems to lower AD risk for women, but increased it in large prospective studies. One theory ( Read more... )

The Daily Mail (UK, 2007) reports on research (publication pending) by Lynda Boothroyd of the University of Durham (UK) that indicates that women are attracted to men who resemble their fathers, mediated by their relationship with their father. Girls who like their fathers are more likely to be attracted to men who resemble them. Boothroyd was ( Read more... )

Judy Skatssoon (6/4/2007), writing for news.com.au, says that the University of Warwick has "dealt heterosexual women a final indignity." Skatssoon is referring to research by Michael Tlauka that found differences in mental rotation ability, with straight men scoring the highest while straight women scored the lowest. However, although the news ( Read more... )

Van den Tillar and Ettema (2004) found that overarm throwing strength was related to size (measured as fat free body mass: FFM), and not gender, in a group of experienced handball players. In an obese sample, Lafortuna et al (2005) failed to find a gender component to strength differences, although they noted that women tended to develop more fat ( Read more... )

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects about 2 million people in the U.S., and about three times as many women as men. Forslind et al (2007) found that women were far less likely than men to have early rheumatoid arthritis go into remission. Prior to treatment, the women and men in the study had similar symptoms, but the disease appeared to become ( Read more... )

Martel et al (2006) found that the types of muscle fibers that develop as a result of strength training differ by sex and age. Specifically Type IIx fibers (fast-twitch) developed less in young women and older men than in young men and older women. Gallagher et al (1997) found that proportional muscle mass decrease with age was nearly twice as ( Read more... )

Brabbins et al (1993) found rates of insomnia in an elderly (over 65) population were twice as high in women as in men. Differences in mental disorders partially explained this difference; women were also more likely to be depressed. Leger et al (2000) found that prevalence of sleep complaints were 63% higher in women, and for "severe insomnia" ( Read more... )

Falling injuries are a serious health risk in elderly populations, and are more prevalent in women. Therefore, several studies have examined whether there is a difference in posture control and balance between the genders. Schieppati et al (!999) found that healthy men and women were equally able to accurately assess the magnitude of their own ( Read more... )

Men's arteries are bigger than women's, even after correcting for height and weight, according to Osterweil (2007) on MedPageToday.com. Osterweil cites two articles from this month's issue of the journal Circulation (Milicent et al,2007; Andersen & Pepine, 2007) which examine gender differences in women's recovery from acute myocardial infarction ( Read more... )

Eva Emerson, in Medical News Today (2/11/07) reports on John Tower's (2006) model for explaining aging and the mortality gap between the sexes. Tower's work with drosophila (fruit flies) suggested that sexula differentiation might come at great cost in terms of aging. Mitochondria seem to be less functional in older fruit flies and mammals, with ( Read more... )