He might actually have an evolutionary disadvantage.

這其實可能是他在演化上的缺陷。

Hey guys and dolls, Trace here for DNews.

嘿，各位先生女士，我是 DNews 的 Trace

It’s a pretty common trope that a cold or the flu doesn’t really affect women as much

社會上有個普遍的迷思是，相對於男生

as it does men.

流感對女生的影響比較小

There’s even a kind of a pejorative name for it, “the man flu”, which implies that

甚至還有「男性流感」這種有點貶抑的名稱出現，意思就是

men are just being babies.

男人只是在裝病而已。

Now, of course this is a crazy exaggeration… being sick sucks for everyone... except…

當然這只是一個過度誇張的說法，生病對每個人來說都很糟糕

studies have shown this difference in experience may have a hint of truth to it.

但現在的研究顯示，這個差異有可能是真的

Empirically, men tend to die more often than women when they catch tuberculosis, and they’re

根據經驗，當感染肺結核時，男性比起女性更容易死亡，而且當他們

five times as likely to get cancer when infected with HPV.

感染人類乳突病毒時，罹癌的機率是女性的五倍。

There are a whole mess of viruses that seem to be much faster and deadlier in men than

比起在女性體內，似乎有一大堆的病毒在男性體內成長更快速、更致命，

they are in women, or they cause worse outcomes.

或是造成更嚴重的結果。

Well, a paper, that came out in December of 2016 in the journal Nature Communications

Nature Communications 期刊在2016年12月發表了一篇論文

studied a phenomenon where a certain virus called HTLV-1 caused leukemia to develop and

研究人類 T 淋巴細胞病毒在人體造成白血病蔓延的現象，

eventually killed approximately twice as many Japanese men as it did Japanese women, but it affected

結果顯示日本實驗組，男性死亡人數大約是女性的兩倍，

both sexes equally when studied in the Caribbean.

但是加勒比海實驗組，病毒對男女的影響卻是一樣的。

Researchers posited that the biggest explanatory difference was that in Japan, breastfeeding

研究員提出假設，最大的差異在於

goes on for longer than it does in Caribbean.

日本人餵母乳的時間比加勒比海人久

Now this might seem unrelated, but think of it from the viruses perspective.

現在看起來可能沒什麼關聯性，但是從病毒角度來看

Viruses need to spread from host to host to survive, it doesn’t do them any good to

病毒需要藉由持續散播到不同個體來生存，所以立刻讓感染者死亡對病毒

instantly kill whoever they infect, because that doesn’t leave enough time for them

是沒有任何好處的，因為如此一來病毒便沒有足夠的時間

to infect others and continue to survive.

來感染其他人以繼續生存。

Although more research is needed, the authors of the study suggest that it maybe it is evolutionarily

雖然研究還很不足，但是此論文作者認為讓女性活久一點

benefit for a virus to keep a women alive longer, and therefore affect them less severely,

對病毒來說可能是演化的益處，因此對女性的影響才不那麼嚴重，

because they’re more likely to pass that virus onto their children through breastfeeding.

因為女性更有可能藉由哺乳把病毒傳染給她們的小孩。

But, in societies where breastfeeding is less common, and the risk is lower, the virus has

然而，在哺乳行為不普遍、此行為帶來的風險較低的社會，

no such evolutionary imperative.

病毒並沒有這種演化規律。

Another study that came out in 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

美國國家科學院院刊在2013年發表了另一篇研究，

found that when men and women were injected with the flu vaccine, women showed an increased

研究顯示在注射流感疫苗之後，女性有上升的抗體反應

antibody response, and more inflammation proteins in their blood serum, than men did.

而且血清中的炎症蛋白比男性來得多。

Their explanation was that a cluster of genes which actually make you worse at fighting

他們解釋，當你體內有較多的睪丸激素時，讓你抵抗力變弱的基因串

viruses are actually increased, or “upregulated” when your body has higher levels of testosterone.

其實是會增加的，或是所謂的「正調節」。

In fact, men who had high testosterone showed the lowest antibody response to the vaccine.

事實上，擁有高睪酮素的男性對疫苗的抗體反應是最弱的。

The researchers suggest that while this immunosuppressive response in men does worse when dealing with

研究員認為，雖然男性的免疫抑制反應對抵抗病毒不益，

viruses, it can actually save lives when it comes to bacterial infections.

但是在對抗細菌感染時反而有益。

The idea is that men are much more likely to catch bacterial infections.

這是因為男性更容易細菌感染。

Now, those aren’t just dangerous because they can spread, but because sometimes the

它們的危險不僅僅在於它們能散播，更是因為有時候

body totally freaks out when it encounters bacteria, which can lead to a cyclical immune

抵抗細菌導致身體機能失常，造成循環免疫反應，

response called a “cytokine storm”, there are just too many immune cells trying

我們稱之為「細胞因子風暴」，意指同時有太多的免疫細胞聚積

to fight at the same time and they overwhelm your body, sometimes killing you.

以抵抗病原體，對身體產生嚴重的損傷，甚至造成死亡。

Since men are more prone to these infections, it makes sense to avoid killing yourself fighting them.

因為男性更容易感染，所以避免死於過激地抵抗病原也是合理的。

What we’re trying to say, is both sexes have a lot to deal with, but men, thanks to

我們想要說的是，男女都會被影響，但是，

testosterone, seem to suffer a little bit more when they're sick.

因為睪酮素的關係，男性生病時似乎會遭受到多一點的痛苦。

So, show a little compassion, stop calling it “the man flu”.

所以，多一點同理心吧，別再說什麼「男性流感」了。

It's not just sickness that hits men harder, it's also breakups.

男人不只是在生病方面會比較嚴重，分手也是

Check out this video of myself and Amy laying that out for you.

看看這部影片吧！我跟 Amy 會為你做更清晰的解釋。

And please subscribe so you get more DNews.

還有，訂閱我們得到更多的 DNews 喔！