What is it that makes women such powerful “flu Vikings?”

Are men babies when it comes to illness?

Women, say it with me: “Uh…YEAH! Complete and total babies!”

Sorry men, but this is not just what we think. We have some science behind it.

Well…there are some SCIENTISTS behind it — let’s put it that way. And, like any good scientists worthy of their slide rules, they have a couple of theories as to why we women are far superior to men. (In the case of illness, anyway.)

Theory One: Superior immune systems.

This theory comes from Ghent University in Belgium and it’s all based on the X chromosome. And that’s as far as I’m going with an explanation because it’s very complex (and there’s a slight possibility I don’t understand more than 10 words of it).

Bottom line: X chromosome, protein, cells, genes…put them together and they at least partly add up to an explanation for why women weather infection, trauma, and sepsis better than men, and may even account for why we generally have longer lifespans.

Sounds perfectly feasible to me!

But vaccine and virology expert Don J. Diamond says no. Which brings us to…

Theory Two: We’re masters of pain.

Diamond tells MSNBC that it probably has more to do with women’s tolerance for pain. Our higher pain threshold, he says, turns us into “flu Vikings.”

Flu Vikings! Hmmm…if you’ve seen the Vikings play this year, we might be better off as “flu Lions” or “flu Packers.”

Sources:
“Man flu, explained: Guys may have weaker immune response” Brian Alexander, MSNBC, 9/28/11, msnbc.com