Man Flu - It Really Does Exist Girls!

Men with the sniffles will be over the moon to hear that man flu is NOT a myth.

Research has shown that women have a more powerful immune system and take less days off sick.

A whopping 30% of men stay at home with colds and flu, compared to just 22% of women.

And boffins say it is all down to hormones.

According to a new study, the female sex hormone oestrogen boosts the body’s defences against bacteria.

It means oestrogen-based drugs may now be used to give men a better defence against unwanted bugs.

The research looked at an enzyme, caspase-12, which has been proved to raise the risk of infection by stopping inflammation – something the body uses to fight disease.

Male mice with the dodgy enzyme got sick, but the females did not. Researcher Dr Maya Saleh said: “These results demonstrate that women have a more powerful inflammatory response than men.”

She said the finding was also likely to apply to humans, which could lead to immunity-boosting drugs containing oestrogen being marketed.

Studies have already shown that men are more susceptible to infection by bacteria, viruses, fungi and worms than women.

This phenomenon may be down to healthy women being key to successful reproduction.

Dr Saleh, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said: “We think nature devised this strategy to protect the reproductive role of the female body and keep the human race going.

“It just dropped the mechanism from the male sex.”