Men are catching up.

American men now live just five years less, on average, than women, closing a gap that once approached eight years. Male life expectancy hit a record 75.2 in 2004, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced.

Nice work, guys. CDC data suggest you did it by smoking less and taking other steps to reduce the risks of cancer and heart disease.

But are men going to leave it at that? Is the supposedly more competitive sex OK with a world in which women ultimately come out ahead?

On behalf of dateless 90-year-old ladies everywhere — and all the wives, daughters, sisters and friends who would like the men in their lives to stick around a bit longer for many Father's Days to come — I'm throwing down the gauntlet.

Catch us if you can. 

"I think we can live as long as women," says Ken Goldberg, a Dallas urologist who frequently writes and speaks on men's health and is an adviser to the non-profit Men's Health Network. (The group sponsors Men's Health Week, starting today.)

"I don't think the gap is insurmountable," says Jean Bonhomme, an Atlanta physician and president of the National Black Men's Health Network. (Black men have shorter life expectancies than white men or women but are making progress, too.) 

Of course, there could be some underlying biological reasons for the gender gap. Women, despite the dangers of childbearing, have been outliving men for centuries and continue to outlive them in most countries, says Daniel Kruger, a research scientist at the University of Michigan. He and co-author Randolph Nesse analyzed the gap from an evolutionary viewpoint in the spring issue of Human Nature.

Though more males are conceived and born, more also die throughout childhood, leaving the sexes conveniently equal in number for one magic moment right around puberty, Kruger notes.

From there, it's downhill for guys, he says. An especially disproportionate number die young and violently — from accidents, suicide and murder.

One explanation: Young men live dangerously to compete with other young men for status, resources and, of course, women. 

Older men often die of diseases linked to behaviors begun in youth, from smoking to heavy drinking to overeating. And for reasons that are only partly understood, males also are more vulnerable to infection, injury, stress and other potential killers. 

But Kruger agrees biology need not be destiny: "We can control behavior. We can do things that are good for our health."

Thing one: Don't smoke. A recent Norwegian study showed that 41% of male heavy smokers were dead by 70, vs. 14% of non-smokers.

Eating a few fruits and vegetables, exercising and limiting alcohol should help, too. Alcohol abuse is an underappreciated major cause of illness and death among men, says Robert Butler, president of the International Longevity Center in New York.

But the basics will get guys only so far. Those who want to keep breaking life-span records also should:

•Get to know a doctor or two. One reason women live longer is that they have more checkups and are quicker to report bothersome symptoms, Bonhomme says. "Men don't go to the doctor until someone has to carry them in."

•Get a wife, a partner or at least a lot of friends. Married men live longer. (Their wives die sooner than single women, but that's a different column.) People with close friends and relatives live longer, too, Butler says. 

•Get a life. In one study of healthy men and women with an average starting age of 71, Butler found the highest survival rates in those who had "something to get up for in the morning," whether it was a job or a golf date. 

Will it all be enough? No one knows. "It could be that women and girls are made of stronger stuff," Roberts says. And the rising co-epidemics of obesity and diabetes threaten to erase the gains of both men and women, he adds.

But, men, just so you know: Most women are rooting for you.