The Flu Vaccine Is Little Effect On Men

The Flu Vaccine Is Little Effect On Men.
The flu vaccine is less powerful for men than women, and researchers at Stanford University assume they've figured out why. The manful hormone testosterone causes genes in the immune pattern to produce fewer antibodies, or defense mechanisms, in response to the vaccine, they found. "Men, typically, do worse than women in vaccinated response to infection and vaccination," said Stanford research accessory David Furman, the lead study investigator.

For instance, men are more susceptible to bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infection than women. And men's untouched systems don't reply as robustly as women's to vaccinations against flu, yellow fever, measles, hepatitis and many other diseases. For the study, published online Dec 23, 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers analyzed the blood of nearly 90 adults after they received a seasonal flu shot.

Men with the highest testosterone levels had the worst effect to the flu vaccine across the board. Testosterone is tied to prototype manly fleshly characteristics, such as muscle strength, beard growth and risk-taking. "We found a set of genes in men that when activated caused a substandard response to the vaccine, but were not involved in female response. Some of these genes are regulated by testosterone".

It's testosterone's create on these genes that causes the poor vaccine response. "This has a lot of implications for vaccine development". Vaccine reaction might be better if men were given twice the dose, he suggested, or maybe if testosterone levels were reduced. The whole picture isn't unquestionably clear or simple. Men's weaker response to the flu vaccine is only seen for some strains of flu.