The Christmas holydays are not only about sharing time with the family and receiving nice gifts, it is also the flu season. Most of us experience at least one episode of sniffing, coughing and sore throat. According to a Canadian doctor, men flu is actually a real health condition.
Men flu is real study claims
A new article published in the British Medical Journal considered men flu as a real condition. The study shows that men experience worse flu symptoms than women.
Dr. Kyle Sue, clinical assistant professor in family medicine at St. John’s University, investigated men everything he could find on men flu before deciding it was real. He concluded that although limited, there is research that man flu is real.
The majority of the sources he found involved mice experiments and the results concluded that women respond to flu better than males.
Another study he found showed that after infecting 63 healthy cells with a common virus, the cells from women had a better immune response than those of men.
Other studies available
Apart from the mentioned studies, Dr. Sue also found a seasonal flu study from Hong Kong which showed that more men were admitted to the hospital between the years of 2004-2010.
In the U.S there was an observational study for 10 years, 1997-2007, which concluded that more men died due to flu than women.
Evidence is still limited
According to Dr. Sue, the evidence is limited, but it still suggests men flu is real. Many women have been complaining along the years that men exaggerate when they have the flu and that they complain a lot. Dr. Sue admits that he was also told by women he was exaggerating his flu symptoms.
Apparently, men are more sensitive to flu.
