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| Science & Technology |
| Women’s more complicated genes help them survive COVID more than men, claims MD |
| 2020-08-23 |
| [IsraelTimes] In new book ‘The Better Half’ Dr. Sharon Moalem says genes, not behavior, responsible for women’s increased longevity and immune response, but also heighten effects of ‘Long Covid’. Long Covid as he describes it sounds exactly like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which strikes significantly more women than men, and which most often seems to be triggered when the immune system for some reason does not reset back to normal after revving up in response to an infection. And goodness knows that neurasthenic, derived from an old term for CFS, became a common descriptor in the 1920s after the Spanish flu pandemic, suggesting that it suddenly became a fairly common thing rather than the rarity it is historically. So something to look for a rash of after this is over, along with all those with the usual cardiac problems that can develop after someone has a bad flu. And hopefully the frantic research into Covid-19 disease processes and treatments will discover things that have considerably broader benefits than just this disease. Both sexes stand to benefit from more research. We can only study one sex to help another if we accept there are underlying differences that we can’t change that have a biological origin.The morbidity that women face because of autoimmune diseases is pretty severe. With lupus it’s a 9:1 ratio, with muscular dystrophy it’s 4:1. All of these conditions make life unbearable at times. We need to understand how it is that men don’t develop those conditions. "and make sure they do. Equal suffering!" Behavior aside, if we accept there are basic biological differences, if we see that the male immune system is pacifist by nature, that it doesn’t turn on itself, then we can think about how to apply that pacifism to the female physiology. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #3 Smack! |
| Posted by: gorb 2020-08-23 20:43 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-08-23 14:39 |
#1  |
| Posted by: Anomalous Sources 2020-08-23 13:58 |