This picturesque West Cork home with separate basement apartment is on the market for €695,000
This picturesque West Cork home with separate basement apartment is on the market for €695,000

Sarah Finnan

‘The Easter holidays are a fresh kind of hell when you have kids and a job’
‘The Easter holidays are a fresh kind of hell when you have kids and a...

Dominique McMullan

Annutri co-founder and award-winning businesswoman Anita Donoghue on the power of a positive mindset
Annutri co-founder and award-winning businesswoman Anita Donoghue on the power of a positive mindset

IMAGE

This Clontarf home was reconfigured to streamline the layout and maximise its views
This Clontarf home was reconfigured to streamline the layout and maximise its views

Megan Burns

6 classic movies worth watching over Easter
6 classic movies worth watching over Easter

Jennifer McShane

The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult
The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult

Sarah Gill

Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole
Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole

Meg Walker

New life has been breathed into this Victorian Portobello home thanks to a revamp that’s full of personality
New life has been breathed into this Victorian Portobello home thanks to a revamp that’s...

Megan Burns

This rustic four-bedroom home in Westport is on the market for €449,000
This rustic four-bedroom home in Westport is on the market for €449,000

Sarah Finnan

My Career: Archivist at Guinness Eibhlin Colgan
My Career: Archivist at Guinness Eibhlin Colgan

Sarah Finnan

Image / Editorial

Why Men Get ‘Man Flu’


By Jeanne Sutton
18th Jan 2016
Why Men Get ‘Man Flu’

Tis the season of girlfriends grumbling about looking after their ill significant others with words like ‘man flu? and ?exaggerating? flying under their suspicious breath. However, maybe we should stop with the dismissive comments and Doubting Thomas thoughts, because man flu is real. Apparently.

A study by the John Hopkins University in the American Journal of Physiology: Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology analysed how men and women reacted to the influenza virus, and some clear differences were discerned. Turns out men are more vulnerable to all those nasty infections and tend to suffer more. Sorry.

Scientists looked at the effect of female hormone oestrogen on each sex when it suffers from the Extreme Sniffles. flu. (In 2013, a Stanford University study found that the male sex hormone testosterone weakened flu resistance.) Volunteers were injected with both the oestrogen and the influenza virus, and it turned out that women fared much better at resisting the virus. Meanwhile, men felt the symptoms way more severely, despite having extra oestrogen in their system. The conclusion? The protective anti-viral effect of oestrogen is only activated in women. And women who are injected with oestrogen for health issues like infertility and menopause may be more resistant than other members of the population to the flu virus.

Previous studies have shown oestrogen is a valuable potential weapon in the fight against hepatitis, HIV and Ebola, Macleans reports. So while we women may not have as much of a right to complain about our flu, we do have an untapped superpower running through our blood.

Via Macleans