Kyle Sue, a Canadian scientist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland took it upon himself to prove the existence of the mythical man flu. His paper, published in the journal, BMJ, suggests that the ailment is indeed very real and should be treated as such.

Sue confessed he was “tired of being accused of over-reacting” when telling people of his flu symptoms which appeared to be way worse than what women perceive when they’re down.

The Oxford Dictionary defines man flu as “a cold or similar minor ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms.”

Kyle, however, wanted to eliminate the “exaggerating” part and proceeded in analyzing previous studies to see whether men experience worse flu symptoms than women. He found evidence of this which points to an immunity gap between the two genders.

According to Sue, this immunity gap may be due to a hormonal difference, where the masculine hormone testosterone smothers the immune system while the feminine hormone estradiol protects it.

The researcher first pointed out that women respond differently to vaccines that protect against the flu, in that they are more responsive to vaccination than men.

Sue then emphasized on men’s higher risk of hospitalization due to the flu and their higher rate of influenza-related deaths compared with women. The results remained constant regardless of underlying heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory system disease, and renal disease, according to him.

The Canadian scientist urges researchers to conduct more studies into men’s responses to the symptoms. He believes they are caused by a survival instinct meant to conserve energy. He then adds as a sort of tongue-in-cheek comparison, that this survival instinct replaced avoiding predators with lying on the couch for increased chances of survivability.

Sue concludes his research by calling the term ‘man flu’ “unjust” and calls for additional research on the subject.

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Many people can’t go cold turkey when trying to quit smoking and instead resort to e-cigarettes which can deliver nicotine into the system without damaging the lungs. That’s all well and good for those avid smokers who want a safer way of getting a quick nicotine fix. But what about the youngsters?

According to a study published in the American Journal of Medicine, young people who start smoking e-cigarettes from an early age have a higher chance of becoming regular smokers. The study monitored a group of 18- to 30-year-old non-smokers in March 2013 and then picked up 18 months later.

The 915 participants who took both surveys, with only 16 having previously tried smoking e-cigarettes. Six of those later became full-fledged smokers. 80 participants of the remaining 899 took up smoking 18 months later.

Researchers revealed that 47.7 percent of those who started using e-cigarettes went on to try smoking, as opposed to 10.2 percent of those who did not indulge in the smoking substitute.

„There have been a lot of studies and in short, they make us concerned that people who experiment with e-cigarettes… we do believe that that experience puts them at a higher risk of later transitioning,” said Dr. Brian Primack, lead author of the study and a directors of Pittsburgh’s Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health.

According to Dr. Primach, one of the key factors which set aside the results of the study were sensation-seeking behavior and rebelliousness. While rebellion was taken into account, it did not pose any significance when associating e-cigarette smoking to regular smoking.

This observation was made as a response from Bill Godshall, executive director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, who criticised the study by saying it is nothing more than a „witch hunts”. In Godshall’s opinion, e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking only if the person’s regular use of e-cigarettes must cause later cigarette smoking and not merely precede it. Dr. Primack addressed Godshall’s criticism by pointing out he wanted to isolate causation by taking into account other variables such as the ones described above.

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According to a study published in the Journal of Neurology & Psychiatry, marriage is the best way of keeping dementia at bay.

The paper combined data from 15 studies including more than 800 thousand people from around the world who were either divorced, widowed or never married. Researchers from the University College of London found that people who never married were 42 percent more likely to develop dementia when compared to married people. Those who lost a spouse were 20 percent more likely of contracting the disease.

Previous research has revealed that married people tend to be healthier and more socially engaged than single people. This, in turn, was said to improve one’s „cognitive reserve”.

„This means their brain has strategies that allow them to withstand the damage without showing symptoms of dementia,” said Andrew Sommerlad, lead author of the study and a geriatric psychiatrist and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow.

The British researchers believe that widowed people have a higher risk of dementia than divorced people, due to the stress that comes with bereavement. That stress could be powerful enough to affect memory-forming and cognitive areas of the brain, according to the study.

While there were differences between the three groups, preventing dementia is a lot more complex than putting a ring on a finger. The authors did reveal a link between marriage and dementia, however, they don’t know what exactly causes married people to remain healthier.

Another issue with the research, according to the researchers, is the different personality traits in each individual.

„It may be that their dementia risk plays a part whether they find a partner many years earlier,” states Sommerlad.

Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer’s Research UK believes that married people generally live longer and are healthier due, in part, to a change in financial status. According to her, financial stability „is closely interwoven with many aspects of our health.”

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