Is 'man flu' real? 6 Minute English

Dan: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English.

I'm Dan, and joining me today is Neil. Hi Neil.

Neil: Hi, everyone!

Dan: Bless you! Are you ok?

Neil: I think I’m coming down with something serious.

Dan: It’s just a case of the sniffles.

Neil: The sniffles

is an informal way of saying a cold or flu.

It comes from the sniffing sound people make

when they have a runny nose.

Dan: And a runny nose is when liquid mucus keeps

leaking from our nose,

usually when we are sick.

I’m afraid you’ll just have to soldier on Neil.

Neil: To soldier on means to continue despite difficulty.

I’m dying!

What’s it about anyway?

Dan: It’s about ‘man flu’,

and whether it’s actually real, or

just something men like to complain about.

We'll give you 6 words and expressions – and, of course, our quiz question.

Neil: Alright, fire away.

Dan: In a survey conducted by Nuts magazine

that asked its readers

how long they took to recover from a cold or flu,

where women put an average of 1.5 days,

what did men put?

Was it a) 1 day

b) 2 days or c) 3 days?

Neil: I’m going to say 3 days.

The threat of ‘man flu’ is real.

Dan: Well, we’ll find out later, but let’s clarify.

‘Man flu’ is the tendency that many people believe men

have to complain about a minor illness,

such as a cold or flu,

and act as if they were suffering from something

a lot more serious.

Neil: Yes. But science cannot say whether men

do actually suffer more than women,

or if men just tend to complain more.

Dan: Let’s hear from this British couple

about whether they think ‘man flu’ is real or not.

Man: Men definitely do suffer a lot more, I think,

than women do when we get flu.

Woman: Yeah, I’m not so convinced.

I feel like they just complain more.

Woman: I was ill recently and I just carried on

and went to work and everything.

And when Chris had got sick recently

he was on the sofa and couldn’t really do anything, so…

Dan: And it seems that it’s not just in the UK.

Listen to this BBC Journalist interviewing a woman

from Europe.

BBC Journalist: You’re from the Netherlands.

Have you ever accused your

boyfriend of having man flu?

Dutch woman: Oh, absolutely yes. Yeah.

BBC Journalist: What have you accused him of doing?

Dutch woman: …whining?

Neil: Whining is when someone complains repeatedly

and often in an annoying way about something.

So, there certainly seems to be something there

but nothing has been proven, right?

Dan: Well, a recent scientific study

has indicated that there could be something

to ‘man flu’ after all.

Doctor Kyle Sue,

an assistant professor of

family medicine at Memorial University

of Newfoundland in Canada,

has suggested

that there could be a difference

between men and women

when it comes to respiratory diseases.

Neil: Respiratory meaning related to breathing.

He says that there was already a lot of evidence

from existing studies suggesting men experience

worse, longer-lasting symptoms.

Dan: Symptoms are the feelings of illness caused

by a disease.

Listen to him explain why this is.

Dr Sue: It seems that the higher the testosterone levels,

the lower the immune response to

these types of infections,

whereas the higher the oestrogen level,

the stronger the immune response.

Neil: Testosterone and oestrogen are hormones

that exist in both men and women.

Testosterone is higher in males

and oestrogen is higher in females.

Dr. Sue’s research suggests that

the more oestrogen a person has,

the better able they are to fight off the infection.

That’s it then! Man flu is real!

Dan: Hold your horses, Neil.

There are two problems.

First of all, the Royal college of GPs in the UK

says that there is no such thing as ‘man flu’.

And secondly,

even Dr Sue admits that these results, including his own,

are only ‘suggestive’ and are not ‘definitive’.

Neil: So, basically he’s saying that

there is a suggestion that ‘man flu’ exists,

but the evidence so far cannot say for sure.

Dan: Exactly.

More studies need to be done.

But you know what we can be sure about?

The answer to this week’s quiz question.

I asked you

in a survey conducted by Nuts magazine

that asked its readers

how long they took to recover from a cold or flu,

where women put an average of 1.5 days,

what did men put?

a) 1 day b) 2 days or c) 3 days

Neil:And I said 3 days.

Dan:And you were

right!

Neil :Good!

Dan: The men said they took twice as long to recover!

Neil: It must be all that manly testosterone.

Let’s review our vocabulary, shall we?

Dan: Our first was the sniffles.

If you have the sniffles,

you have a cold, informally speaking.

What's the best cure for the sniffles Neil?

Neil: Stay in bed and sweat it out, my mum always said.

Just make sure you have lots of tissues

to deal with your runny nose.

That’s when a person’s nose leaks mucus,

usually because they are ill. Yuck!

Dan: Next we had soldier on.

This phrasal verb means to continue despite difficulty.

When was the last time you had to soldier on, Neil?

Neil: A few days ago when I went the whole day

without eating any lunch!

Then we had ‘man flu’.

That’s is the name given to the situation where a person,

often a man,

tends to complain and exaggerate a small illness

such as a cold.

Do you do that, Dan?

Dan: I’m sure my wife would say I do!

Next we had whining.

If you whine, you complain repeatedly

and often in an annoying way.

Neil: Like my children did

last time I didn’t buy them ice-cream.

And finally we had symptoms.

These are the feelings of illness caused by a disease.

What are the symptoms of flu, Dan?

Dan: A headache, aching muscles, and a fever.

And that’s the end of this 6 Minute English!

Don’t forget to check out our YouTube,

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

There you made it. You can collapse now.

Neil: Bye.

Dan: Bye!