boys versus girls.

Today I was watching a DVR'd Oprah that had Dr. Oz on it. I don't really watch Oprah much, but I love when Dr. Oz is on there. The topic was men versus women in terms of the way their bodies work and the differences.

I don't know if it's just because I am pregnant, tired of being slow and huge, and indignant - but after watching it today - talk about women getting the SHORT END OF THE STICK! Maybe it's just the hormones talking, but here is what I learned:

Why women are such cheap dates when it comes to alcohol consumption:

Dr. Oz said that it is not primarily a size difference, but a biological one. Would you believe that men have an EXTRA enzyme that digests alcohol? Well, probably not my husband, considering he has a liver issue called "Gilbert's syndrome" (French pronunciation). Really? Is this what men need?! He also went on to mention that Asians lack an enzyme in their liver that most others have. Back in my day of drinking and being young - I used to refer to me getting red in the face when I drank as the "Asian curse". Little did I know that there was some fact behind it!

Mommy Brain.

I really try to refrain from this phrase, because I thought it was some made up issue to make moms feel better about themselves whenever they got forgetful or flakey. For instance, I was supposed to pick up my friend's daughter from preschool today, and I failed to remember to meet her in the morning to get her carseat. Shoot, I apparently didn't even notice the minivan flashing its brights at me. What the heck?! But when my friend, Heather, actually did reach me, I told her I had no good explanation, I jokingly pointed at the pregnant belly, but was not serious. HOWEVER, there, too, is fact about Mommy Brain. Dr. Oz said that when you're pregnant, your brain actually SHRINKS by 8%, but that it is the cells that are shrinking, not that you're losing cells. He also said that because babies need so much Omega-3 Fatty Acids (which is a necessity for memory), the baby just leeches it off of you, leaving you with sparing amounts, and your memory takes one for the team. Fabulous.

Lung Function

This one almost made me downright mad! I always figured that it wasn't right to compare people's different sizes with their performance. I figured....well, we're all proportional, so it's relative. But nooooooooo....Men have larger lungs than women, so they can quickly level off once they start, let's say, running. When men start running, the huffing and puffing of warming up tapers off much quicker apparently than women. Here's where I think Dr. Oz was trying to give a warm fuzzy to women. And after being crabby about all these injustices, it worked with me, especially because it's about running and getting strong. Here is what he said: While men have that advantage, women, once they get in shape, can catch up quickly and are, therefore, capable of more improvement. To me, that is more rewarding, however, I am sure a die-hard pessimist would say, "well, it's just because you can only improve so much and if men are starting out with a more competitive edge, than it just makes sense that they can't improve much more." And you could look at it like that, but I love the joy of improving and getting faster and stronger.

Memory and Worrying.

Finally, it turns out that there is some truth to a woman never forgetting. It was said that a woman's brain has a larger hypothalmus than a man's brain. Because this is part of the brain is central to memory, they said that we, women, have a more complex memory in terms of "emotional event detail." She used the example of how we might remember arguments more specifically than our counterparts. Hmmmmmmmm....

Worrying: It has always seemed like I worry more than the husband does. When there was something serious that I worried about, it always drove me a little crazy that Rob, while concerned, seemed to have better reign over those thoughts than me. Did I say a little crazy?! Well, sometimes more than that. Another distinction between male and female brains is the anterior cingulate cortex. Studies show that this area of the brain deals a lot with worry, and research finds it interesting that this part in the brain is, also, larger in a female's brain than a male's brain. This may give some explanation to women worrying more than men.

And after all is said and done - we get to live longer. Some things just don't make any sense....