FOR centuries women have been thought of as the weaker sex but a new US study has revealed the opposite - men's health and well-being is much more at risk than women at every point during their - usually much shorter - lives.

In fact, American doctors have even gone so far as to suggest that just being a man is bad for your health. With statistics that show that men are more at risk than women from everything from heart disease to murder, it's not hard to believe that the male gender has now become a health risk in itself.

"It's certainly dangerous being a man," agrees Simon Geller, editor of Men's Health. "The main reason is that women have got their act together more than men when it comes to looking after themselves."

The study was carried out by doctors at the University of Michigan who looked at the premature deaths of men in over 20 countries. One of the doctors, Randolph Nesse, summed up their findings by saying: "Being male is now the single largest demographic factor for early death."

They found that those who faced the greatest risks were men in their early 20s and, more understandably, in the later stages of life. The early 20s is an extremely dangerous time for men as, surprisingly, they are three times more likely to die than women of the same age.

"Men drink, smoke and take drugs more aggressively in that decade of their lives than any other," explains Geller. "They have less responsibility at that age so it's all selfish behaviour with their disposable income, which they spend doing bad things to their bodies."

In past studies, figures show again and again that men are more likely than women to drink excessively, smoke and use illegal drugs. They also point out that men tend to be overweight more than women and are less likely to use sunscreen. This slap-happy attitude has always been a dangerous foible in men but it seems we're just natural risk-takers.

"Men's tomboy, rumbustious approach to play encourages a certain amount of risk-taking, it's in our nature," says Geller. "Certainly behind the wheel men seem to be much more aggressive.

"Geneticists would say men are bred like that, we're the hunter gatherers and we're supposed to jump across ravines and go into caves - it's in men's bones to all this daring stuff."

But this 'daring' nature allows disease to prey on men much more happily than it does women. Men are more likely to die as a result of HIV infection or heart disease, for example, and this is no doubt relateS to the fact that a GP surgery is as appealing to most men as a beauty salon - who often can't even be bothered to go to the dentist.

Nesse and his colleagues believe that part of the reason for higher death rates in men is because women have received greater benefits from medical advances. But this again could be down to men's disinterest in looking after themselves.

"Women benefit more from medical advances because they have gone out and taken the benefits," argues Geller. "It's not that there have been huge discoveries that have only benefited women. women have got it together and made a fuss about things like breast cancer and demanded more money for research. Men don't do any of that stuff, so all credit to women for waking up to that."

If being a man is bad for your health, what on earth can men do to combat their problem? A sex-change operation is obviously a little extreme, but there is a more practical solution - women.

"One fabulous statistic that always comes up says that married men live longer than single men," says Geller. "I guess that's because a woman is there to nag him about health problems. In my experience that's exactly what does happen, so women are very good for men's health."

Any women who are happy to hear the news about their current supremacy over men will be concerned to hear that there is one place in the world where men live longer than women - the Caribbean island of Martinique. What's even stranger about this anomaly is the same cannot be said for nearby islands St Lucia and Guadeloupe.

While researchers try to uncover the secret of Martinique's men, the doctors of Michigan University are calling for governments around the world to take action. Nesse says: "If you could make male mortality rates the same as female rates, you would do more good than curing cancer."

Geller agrees that the British Government could do more to improve men's health.

"The medical establishment recognises that men don't like going to GP surgeries and yet the Government doesn't spend one penny investigating ways to bring medicine to men," he says. "One idea that's been mooted is a big truck going round all the factories taking men's blood pressure.

"There was this great nurse up north who recently started doing surgeries in pubs. She'd take men's blood pressure and do blood tests for diabetes and the men were great about it."

The fact that men are generally quite rubbish when it comes to looking after themselves is nothing new. But with more surveys revealing the price they pay for their negligence, men are being forced to reassess their attitude.