Men More Apt To Get Sick

Men, listen up! You now have a good excuse to lounge on the couch when your wife gets out your list of chores. You are taking a "stress break". (See if your wife buys that one...probably not but it is worth a try.) Men are more susceptible to viruses, bacteria and fungi than women, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

The study of 12,000 rat genes concludes that estrogen accounts for the difference in the ability of males and females to withstand such infections -- a difference that does not exist before puberty, The London Daily Mail reported.

The study says women have stronger adaptive immunity systems that make them less susceptible to the common cold. However, women's stronger adaptive immunity systems may make them more susceptible to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, lead researcher Rebecca Lamason said.

"The documented higher mortality rates in males worldwide may be due in part to this relatively deficient adaptive immune response," Lamason wrote in the British journal BMC Immunology