Women's biochemistry tends to reduce their risk of heart disease. The female hormone estrogen lowers the type of cholesterol in the blood that increases risk of heart disease. But the male hormone testosterone reduces the type of cholesterol that safeguards against heart disease. Fatty deposits associated with the apple shape appear to increase the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Since the late 1980s, women have started using seat belts more frequently than men.
Women eat more fruits and vegetables.
Yet these advantages may be offset by certain behaviors that hurt women's health. Women tend to practice excessive dieting, which has a negative impact on health. By analyzing recent trends in gender differences in health behavior in the United States, Dr. Waldron has shown that women and men are becoming more similar in some types of health behavior, but gender differences in other types of health behavior are not decreasing. Gender differences in smoking, for example, have decreased substantially, but gender differences in heavy drinking remain very large. Similarly, gender differences in amount of driving have decreased in recent decades, but gender differences in seat belt use have actually increased during the 1980s.