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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]