It’s that time of year when coughs and colds are rife; people don’t leave home without their tissues and Lemsip sachets and some of them will unintentionally do impressions of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer as they attempt to battle their snuffles.
This week the BBC reported that granny’s advice to boost your intake of hot drinks when you have a cold, is in fact, good advice. According to researchers at Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre, a mug of tea or hot fruit cordial can help ease the symptoms of colds and flu.
But, what about the illness that grips the male population around this time of year - man flu? We may have dismissed men as being overly dramatic when they claim a cold to be flu but research conducted by Nuts magazine revealed that "man flu" does actually exist.
The Open University’s Dr Tom Heller, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, suggests that while we make fun of men’s inability to cope with minor ailments like coughs and colds, when it comes to more serious health problems guys remain coy and are reluctant to seek treatment.
Dr Tom Heller, a lecturer in the OU’s Faculty of Health and Social Care, said: “Although the concept of man flu has become the subject of light-hearted banter between the sexes, might there be a subject for serious research lurking beneath the surface?
“Throughout the world, wherever data has been collected, it seems that women make more use of health services, but men’s avoidable death rates remain persistently worse than their matched female compatriots.
“So, if the common perception is that men make heavy weather of minor symptoms, such as colds and flu, this certainly doesn’t hold true for life-threatening illness, at which time men seem reticent to report serious health problems to those who might be able to do something about it.
“This could just confirm that at each stage of life men are hopeless at being in touch with, not just their feelings as per popular feminist critique, but also with their somatic symptoms. When faced with minor symptoms they are thought to over-emphasise their significance, feel sorry for themselves for longer, take more time off work etc. But when potentially serious symptoms develop, that may be the harbinger of significant illness, they remain coy and refuse to acknowledge that the pain, loss of function or passage of blood is worthy of attention.
“It could be that women do have more experience of putting up with pain because of the experience of childbirth, menstruation etc and are more used to coping with the indignities of intimate examination.
“Women may possibly even use health services and health professionals more appropriately than men, but making fun of blokes when they do pluck up courage to report feeling poorly surely isn’t really in anyone’s long-term interest?”
Watch this video on man flu...
Useful links
- Check out Platform´s head to head debate on man flu - man versus woman!
- Article on man flu in British Medical Journal
- BBC news story - hot drinks will help cure colds
- Share you views on man flu in the Platform forums
Picture by: Jason Rogers
Comments
Oh no, apparently woman flu is worse than man flu! See this snippet from today's Daily Mail: "..a study has found that 'man flu' is a myth because women whinge more when they have a cold. In a survey of 2,000 people, 85 per cent of women admitted exaggerating symptoms to gain sympathy compared to just 76 per cent of men. A third of women also admitted to feeling 'more emotional' during bouts of winter illness compared to just 12 per cent of men. The results of the study, by probiotic yoghurt manufacturers Actimel, suggest that 'woman flu' is actually much more prevalent than its male equivalent. Gladeana McMahon, consultant psychotherapist, said the findings were surprising because men had a tendency to talk more about their illnesses. She said: 'Women tend to talk more about their feelings generally but men, it seems, appear to vocalise more when they're sick - that's where the myth around man flu originated."
Read the full article here
Interesting, however there could be a difference between whether someone complains and someone admits to complaining. I'm sure further research is required.
I've counselled hundreds of men about their ailments and view this rather differently.
1. Women are much more used to managing ailments through their child-raising experiences and their mum's shared knowledge. They are much more used to visiting a GP and understand the need to seek help early in order to protect their child. This becomes a habit with their own healthcare too, and they develop a better working knowledge of symptoms - which are also widely discussed in womens' magazines and socal networking. Men are generally more peripheral to these factors.
2. It is not 'manly' to show weakness to a stranger, but it's OK to show it to a wife or gf ('mother-surrogates') as during a man's life it will mostly have been mum who took them to the GP or otherise knew what to do.
3. Men hate appearing weak (unless it gains affection!). To my mind this reflects our animal ancestry and men's warrior past. Animals hide their pain to avoid displaying weakness to predators. Going to the GP voluntarily can be construed as a sign of weakness - and there's also a background fear that their ability to perform their protective role may be compromised. Minimising serious symptoms and pretending there's nothing wrong is therefore a natural response, peer-reinforced.
It quite common for single men not to register with a GP or dentist - that avoids the need to re-enter the worlds that scared them as a child. Getting a man to realise that early treatment will cause them a lot less trouble seems unlikely to change until boys get used to the idea that visiting a GP is a good thing!
People marvel that my dog rushes onto the vet's doorstep as we pass. The secret is that I took him in regularly as a puppy, just to say hello or get him weighed. He actually enjoys going now, and doesn't get freaked by the medicinal smells or other clients.