Why are the mortality rates of heart disease and cancer higher in males than females?

Firstly: More females smoke than males do. (to the previous answerer)

Because the pressures on men in our society are a lot higher than on women. More pressure = more stress = more likelihood of contracting a stress-related disease, like Cancer, Heart-disease, MS, and so on...

Women are protected, traditionally, and don't experience the same pressures or stress.

And, while contracting a disease doesn't necessarily imply death, it does in many cases for men, because there is a lot more assistance and support for women who contract a disease. Like... most countries have funded programs for breast-cancer screening. Almost no countries have funded programs for prostate-cancer screening, despite the fact that more men die from prostate-cancer each year than women do from breast-cancer.

The short answer is... it is because of the way our society works - men are disposable, and their mortality rates are necessarily going to be higher. Source(s): Life

because of men's lifestyle..

men are more into vices like smoking which is one of the risk factors that cause cancer..