Paper Monitor
10:55 UK time, Friday, 25 January 2013
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
One of the sacred cows of journalism is today slaughtered by the Daily Telegraph. It's been a staple for years - men are wimps when it comes to colds. But now the myth of man flu is put to the sword.
Erm, perhaps that's going it a bit. who argues colds really are worse for men.
The fact that she's a woman helps.
"Dr Amanda Ellison's research found that men have more temperature receptors in the brain which causes them to experience the symptoms of coughs and colds more acutely than women," the story reports.
Paper Monitor, as befitting its noble role in life, can never declare its identity. It remains strictly neutral on matters gender. In effect one is a sexless being, watching from the wings with disinterested interest. If you follow.
Here's the theory from Dr Ellison, a neuroscientist at Durham University. The area of the brain that balances temperature is the same in boys and girls. But when boys reach puberty testosterone makes it larger. When you have a cold, your temperature goes up to fight the bugs.
"Men have more temperature receptors," says Dr Ellison. "So men run a higher temperature and feel rougher - and if they complain they feel rough then maybe they are right."
You can only remain impartial for so long.
Was Paper Monitor's reaction:
a) What a load of old bull to excuse self pitying men.
or
b) I knew it was worse for us blokes.
Or maybe there's a third possibility. That PM is a hermaphrodite.
On that bombshell, we'll get our handbag/manbag and make ourselves scarce.
The 
