A scientist set out to prove that man flu is real so he could justify whining about his seasonal colds — what he found isn’t helpful
The Christmas issue of the peer-reviewed medical journal The BMJ takes on the issue in a lighthearted article written by a Canadian professor who says he was ‘tired of being accused of overreacting’ to illnesses
By Hilary Brueck
You could be forgiven for not being familiar with the term “Man Flu.” The idea hails from Britain, where people have been accusing men of whining, laying around too much, and just generally over-complaining when they’re sick.
The Oxford English Dictionary says man flu is a “humorous, informal” noun — a term not to be taken too seriously. It’s code for a “cold or similar minor ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms.”
In other words, the man flu has nothing to do with seasonal influenza. This is simply a term for male whining about being a wee bit sick.
But Canadian professor Kyle Sue, who teaches family medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, says he was “tired of being accused of overreacting” to illnesses. So, he set out to present the current science on man flu, in the Christmas edition of The BMJ, a legitimate, scientific journal known for its humorous and lighthearted December issues. It’s never totally clear how seriously the BMJ expects us to take these studies: in past years they’ve covered why Rudolph’s nose is red, and reviewed the entire history of zombie infections, in literature dating back to the 1500s, but the science behind the sillier content is still generally sound.
This year, Sue wanted to explore if men might be “immunologically inferior” to women. Could it be, Sue hoped, that men aren’t wimpier than women, and instead, might have some kind of legitimate health claim to lounging on the couch when they’re sick?