Key points from article :
Men are biologically older than women and the observed sex difference is partially explained by men's more frequent smoking and larger body size.
"We found ... the difference is considerably larger in older participants," Anna Kankaanpää, Doctoral Researcher said.
"We used a rare study design and compared the aging pace among opposite-sex twin pairs.
The male sibling was about one year biologically older than his female co-twin, grew up in the same environment and share half of their genes.
The difference may be explained, by sex differences in genetic factors and the beneficial effects of the female sex hormone estrogen on health," Anna continues.
The subjects were younger (21‒42 years) and older (50‒76 years) adult twins from the Finnish Twin Cohort.
The results help to understand lifestyle behaviors and sex differences related to biological aging and life expectancy.
The study was carried out at the University of Jyväskylä and published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series A.
