The man flu debate

NationalWorld.com

28/11/2023

Transcript

00:00 Hello, my name is David George from nationalwell.com.

00:02 I hope everyone's having a fantastic day.

00:04 Flu season is well and truly upon us,

00:07 and illnesses seem rampant at this time of year.

00:10 I'm here with the early editor, Tom Mawson.

00:11 Tom, when was the last time that you had a cold?

00:14 - 2006.

00:17 - 2006.

00:18 I've worked with you for a decade,

00:19 I know that's not true.

00:21 I've seen you been off for weeks.

00:23 But when we do go off sick,

00:25 we often get accused of making an absolute meal of things

00:27 when we're ill.

00:28 But now it's been confirmed, man flu is a real thing.

00:32 This is from Jenna Hoche, nutritionist,

00:34 she was on this morning.

00:35 And here's what she said, she said,

00:37 "It pains me to say this, but man flu is real.

00:40 "Men really do suffer much more than women

00:41 "when they're ill.

00:43 "When we look at the evidence to find

00:44 "that the female immune system is actually stronger

00:47 "than the male immune system.

00:49 "We also know that testosterone plays a role

00:51 "in the suppression of the immune system."

00:53 Tom, I have to ask, how does it feel

00:55 to finally have our colds validated?

00:58 - I don't feel happy about this.

01:00 I don't like it.

01:01 I don't like men moaning about stuff

01:05 when they shouldn't have to and they don't need to.

01:07 And I don't like this badge of honour

01:09 that man flu is somehow much worse than you get it

01:11 if you're a woman.

01:13 Because A, I'm not convinced it's true,

01:14 'cause I think it's far more likely to be,

01:17 on an individual case.

01:20 And secondly, all it does is it makes it worse

01:22 for the rest of us.

01:23 If we are ever ill,

01:25 then we just get laughed at

01:29 because we're just told,

01:30 "Oh, it's just man flu.

01:31 "Get out of bed.

01:32 "You're just malingering."

01:34 So no, I'm not in favour of this.

01:35 You can prove anything with science.

01:37 I don't wanna sound like Michael Gove,

01:38 'cause I do quite like an expert,

01:39 but in this case, no thank you.

01:42 - But scientifically, this is a fact.

01:44 And anecdotally, and it's taking it to the extreme,

01:48 but when I went down with COVID,

01:51 obviously it's a type of flu,

01:53 I was on my knees basically for two weeks.

01:56 My wife gets it and she was absolutely fine.

01:59 She was wandering around like nothing was wrong.

02:02 - But to continue to use

02:05 some absolutely spurious anecdotal things

02:07 and present it as evidence,

02:08 when my household got COVID,

02:10 my other half was laid up for a week

02:11 and I merely had to sit down for 15 minutes in chair,

02:14 feeling a bit dizzy,

02:15 and then I was all right again.

02:17 And I had to then get on with the hoovering.

02:19 So I think it's, yeah,

02:22 I don't take it, I don't like it.

02:24 And there's another thing that really winds me up.

02:26 If we're here talking about men and health,

02:29 men can shut up about getting a menopause or a manopause.

02:32 It's not true, it's not a thing.

02:35 Like we all get over 40 and we all feel tired

02:39 and midlife crisis is a thing.

02:41 I've got no issue with that existing at all,

02:43 because you can get to a certain point of your life

02:45 and wonder if you've done what you wanna do

02:47 and everything like that,

02:48 completely get a psychological thing.

02:50 But men should stop muscling in

02:52 on what is a genuine female condition

02:55 and claiming it as their own.

02:56 Again, men, shut up, put up, be a man about it,

03:00 literally man up.

03:01 - Now, funnily enough,

03:03 I do agree with you on that point, actually.

03:05 Yeah, this male menopause thing,

03:06 I don't know where it's come from,

03:07 but it needs to stop, it's not real.

03:10 Now, funnily enough, how you mentioned

03:11 about how the roles reversed in your household.

03:14 There are obviously ways that you can combat flu

03:16 and we've had some sort of doctors in the past

03:19 and even this week, suggesting things like vitamin C,

03:22 vitamin D, zinc.

03:23 So the healthier you eat,

03:26 perhaps the more likely you are to dodge the man flu.

03:30 But personally, from the way I see it,

03:33 for us blokes, it's okay to not be okay.

03:36 And if man flu strikes, then it is what it is.

03:39 You're just gonna have to rest up,

03:41 take a few days off work

03:42 and come back when you're fit and ready.

03:45 I do wanna raise this.

03:47 When a woman goes through childbirth,

03:50 she says it's the worst pain of her life.

03:51 And then three months later, she has,

03:53 "I wanna have another kid."

03:54 You've never heard a man go,

03:56 "I really want another flu in a couple of months."

03:58 - I am maintaining a distance from your opinion on that,

04:04 Mr. George, and I'm letting you have your opinion

04:07 all to yourself.

04:08 - Fair enough.

04:12 Well, the debate is gonna continue.

04:13 We were speaking beforehand that this sort of debate

04:15 dates back decades at this point.

04:18 We may never truly know if man flu is a real thing or not,

04:21 but one thing's for certain, next time I'm ill,

04:24 I'm definitely gonna have to put on a brave face

04:25 and make sure I don't call in sick for you.

04:27 - Thank you.

04:30 (audience applauding)

04:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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