In another research study that pitches men against women, a new study found out that women tend to outlive men and stay mentally sharp longer. The study also explains that the reason why the female brain appears about three years younger.
The study enrolled 121 women and 84 men, who underwent PET scans to measure brain metabolism or the flow of oxygen and glucose in their brains.
Like other organs in the body, the brain uses sugar as fuel. But just how it metabolizes glucose can reveal a lot about the brain's metabolic age.
For the study, subjects between the ages of 20 to 80 were observed. The observations found that across all age spans, women’s brains appeared to metabolically younger than men’s.
And when compared to men, male brains were about were 2.4 years older than their true ages.
"It's not that men's brains age faster," said senior author Manu Goyal, assistant professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
"They start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life," said Goyal.
But why?
One of the theory says that the hormones begin shaping the brain metabolism at a younger age for women, setting females on a pattern that is more youthful throughout their lives, compared to men.
Scientists hope to find out if metabolic differences in the brain may play a protective role for women, who tend to score better than men on cognitive tests of reason, memory and problem-solving in old age.
This also explains the lesser number of female patients for cognitive decline among women in the older ages.
