If You Know Anybody Male who is 55 and Older, Read This!

The pyramid graphs below show the age and sex distribution in the U.S. and the Philippines. Notice that from 0 to 54 years old, the males always outnumber the females from both countries. However, at 55 years and above, the women begin and continue to outnumber the men.

United States

0-14 years: 18.73% (male 1,255,995/female 29,919,938)
15-24 years: 13.27% (male 22,213,952/female 21,137,826)
25-54 years: 39.45% (male 64,528,673/female 64,334,499)
55-64 years: 12.91% (male 20,357,880/female 21,821,976)
65 years and over: 15.63% (male 22,678,235/female 28,376,817) (2017 est.)

Philippines

0-14 years: 33.39% (male 17,764,826/female 17,050,168)
15-24 years: 19.16% (male 10,199,389/female 9,780,025)
25-54 years: 36.99% (male 19,597,675/female 18,964,900)
55-64 years: 5.97% (male 2,844,739/female 3,375,139)
65 years and over: 4.49% (male 1,930,273/female 2,748,942) (2017 est.

What happened to the men? They died. Why did they die?

Let us review the top 10 causes of death for both countries.

db328_fig4 — Top Ten Causes of Death, 2016-2017, US, CDC

download — Leading Ten Causes of Death, Republic of the Philippines (R.P.), 2013, DOH

Although the two graphs represent only a year (RP) or two (US), they represent past years and most likely data for the immediate future.

A Deeper Look Into Death Certificates

The process to document death certificates is as follows. The “immediate cause” is the final condition that resulted in death within minutes. The underlying disease/s that led to the immediate cause of death is also recorded. To illustrate:

The two images of the death certificate shown above listed acute renal failure and ruptured myocardium (burst heart) as the immediate cause of death. Diabetes Mellitus is included as the underlying cause for death certificates 1 and 2. But it is only the “immediate cause” is gathered to make the data for the top ten causes of death, not the underlying causes. This exemplifies how diabetes/metabolic syndrome can be hiding behind many immediate causes of death.

Another Way to Interpret the Top Ten Causes of Death

Ischemic Heart disease (Number 1 cause of death U.S. and R.P), vascular system diseases (2nd R.P.) Stroke (5th U.S.), Alzheimer’s Disease (6th U.S.), Diabetes Mellitus (the 7th U.S., 8th R.P.) are all consequences of metabolic syndrome. Since diabetes mellitus lowers the body’s ability to fight infection, we can also add diabetes as the underlying cause of some lower respiratory infections (the 8th U.S., 4th R.P.). Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) (4th R.P., 6th U.S.) are also related to metabolic syndrome. So is tuberculosis (7th R.P.). Diabetes increases the risk of several cancers (2nd US, 4th Phils). Diabetic nephropathy is the most common cause of renal failure in both countries (9th US and R.P.). Suicide (10th U.S.) has many factors involved, and depression is one. Depression is also associated with metabolic syndrome.

In summary, most of the top causes of death, which account for most deaths in both countries, are related to Metabolic Syndrome/Diabetes.

The underlying causes that led to the immediate cause of deaths are events that happened decades before that final hour. This article is not just for men 55 and older but for women and children too. Metabolic syndrome can start as early as the first decade of life and affects both sexes.

We will all die. But we can delay the inevitable so that death does not happen in the most productive years of our lives when the people we care about the most depend on us. Many medications are available, but the best is prevention.

A Deeper Look Into Death Certificates

Another Way to Interpret the Top Ten Causes of Death

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