I knew it! Check this out, and gents, ring that little bell for tea and lemon…
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SCIENCE has confirmed what men around the world have always known to be true: the man cold is real.
When the dreaded bug strikes, women have a much stronger immune response than men, Queensland researchers say.
Led by Professor John Upham, from the University of Queensland’s school of medicine, a five-member research team established that gender was a factor in how the immune system reacts to rhinoviruses, the viruses that usually cause the common cold.
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These differences disappear after women reach menopause – indicating they are probably regulated by sex hormones.
”The way nature has put us together has been done to keep the female of the species alive as a survival thing,” Professor Upham said.
He said it was the first time gender had been identified as a factor in the immune response to rhinoviruses but that sex hormones were known to influence the response to other viruses, such as hepatitis.
Researchers made the discovery after studying how people with asthma respond to rhinoviruses. They noticed that within their study group of healthy people there was a noticeable difference in the male and female responses to the cold viruses for participants aged under 50.
”The biology is telling us … that female hormones are having a beneficial effect on the immune system,” Professor Upham said
from SMH
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