Eve's Rib: The New Science of Gender-Specific Medicine and How It Can Save Your Life

Eve’s Rib is the revolutionary new book that exposes how the medical industry, as a whole, has ignored the issue of gender in almost every aspect of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. From the very infancy of medicine, the focus of study has been on men; it was assumed that women were simply a smaller version of men. Because of a groundswell of interest by women in issues of their own health, the differences between men and women are now becoming the focus of research attention—providing some of the most important changes in medicine since the discovery of antibiotics. Eve’s Rib is a powerful tool for women eager to understand the different ways in which their bodies work and how to use this information to provide essential care for themselves and their loved ones—men and boys included.

Dr. Marianne Legato, one of the most respected scientists working in the field of gender-specific medicine, blows the lid off the medical industry’s long-standing comfort with the notion that what we know about the male body can be applied to women without modification. She shares with women, for the first time, the truth about how they differ fundamentally from men in virtually every system of the body. From the composition of their saliva to the way their guts, brains, and hearts function, Dr. Legato takes us step by step through the differences between male and female form and function and ultimately presents us with a groundbreaking proposal for how gender-specific treatments will radically improve the quality of life for both sexes.

Women have long been viewed as carbon copies of men. In fact, until the 1990s, most medical investigations of diseases that affect both women and men were done exclusively on men, under the assumption that humans were physiologically the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are some eye-opening examples of how men and women are different:

* The male brain is larger and has more brain cells. The female brain, on the other hand, has more intricate and complex intercellular connections from one side to the other. This may explain women’s quicker recovery of speech after stroke.
* Women’s hearts beat faster than those of men, even during sleep, and take longer to relax between beats.
* Women’s lung cancers tend to be located in the periphery of the lung, causing their symptoms to be late-appearing compared to those of men, whose cancers are more centrally located.
* Smoking damages a specific gene in females, which causes a fourfold increase in the likelihood that a woman who smokes will die of cancer.
* The bones at the base of women’s thumbs have unequally sized faces, and wear and tear is greater in this joint than in men’s, who have a better articulation between their same-sized bones.
* Bile has a different composition in men and women. Women are more likely to have gallstones as a result.
* Women’s stomachs empty more slowly than men’s, so food takes longer to move through their digestive tracts. This may influence the way women absorb medicines taken orally.
* After weight loss, women have lower levels of the hormone leptin, which triggers feelings of satiety. This may be why women are more likely to regain lost weight after dieting.

MARIANNE J. LEGATO, M.D., is regarded by both the medical community and the general public as one of the foremost experts on gender differences. A classically trained medical investigator, Dr. Legato has been supported by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health throughout her entire career. In 1997, Dr. Legato founded the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University, which is an alliance between the world of academic medicine and the corporate sector. She is professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is the winner of a Research Career Development Award from the NIH, was cited as an American Health Hero by the American Health for Women organization, and was named Outstanding Woman of the Year in Science in 2002 by the American Medical Women’s Association. She lectures widely and lives in New York City, where she has a private practice.