Whether we admit it or not, at one time or another we’ve all wondered how we’re going to go to our final resting place. Death is a part of life and there’s a great deal of mystery associated with it.
To shed some light on the topic, the Centers for Disease Control released a report last week revealing the ten leading causes of death for men and women.
The top two were the same for both genders: heart disease and cancer. This may not surprise you since obesity is found in about 25 percent of the Canadian population, which is linked to many types of cancer and an increased risk for heart attacks.
A few causes of death remained only one ranking apart between sexes. For example, stroke was number 4 for women and 5 for men. Similarly, diabetes was number 6 for men and 7 for women. The parallels pretty much stop there.
For men, unintentional injuries lands at the number 3 spot, while it ranks at number 6 for women. The reasoning may be due to the fact that men tend to work in more dangerous professions where being killed on the job is quite plausible.
Alzheimer’s disease came in at number 4 for women and number 7 for men, a notable difference. Women are more likely to develop the disease than men by a 3-to-2 margin, according to research done at Kent State University. Why Alzheimer’s occurs more in women is still unknown and is currently being investigated at Kent State University.
Strikingly, two of the causes of death prevalent in men are not even in the top 10 for women—those being suicide and chronic liver disease.
Source: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
According to a study conducted by the Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, the higher rate of suicide is possibly linked to the type of weapon used. Men tend to use more lethal weapons leading to their death. Women on the other hand have a higher percentage of attempted suicide, likely tied to their weapon choice.
Chronic liver disease, the number 10 cause of death in men is linked to alcohol, according to The American Council on Science and Health. A post on the Casa Palmera Blog claims that alcoholism is more common among men than women by twice as much.
Taking an overall look at the chart, the unfortunate truth is men take the lead in nonnatural causes of death perhaps due to poor lifestyle choices.
