At this time of year the UK is struck down with the sniffles. Answer machines in offices, stores and factories across the land are inundated with the whisperings of weak, desperate, near death people regretfully informing their bosses that they will not be able to make it in because of ‘bird flu’, ’swine flu’, ‘the dreaded man flu’ or any other plague like illness. I can’t help but think what my Grandad would have made of it. He would have had none of the hysteria surrounding illness at this time of year.
Mud is fun!
He would have told people to shut up and get on with it. In fact I think his entire generation would be embarrassed by modern hypochondria. So what is going on? Are we more prone to sickness now? Are we just complaining more? Or are modern environmental factors like air conditioning making us more likely to come into contact with nasty bugs?
The suggestion is that children are so wrapped in cotton wool that they do not have the opportunity to build up their immune systems. It’s a strange contradiction that the more neurotic we become about cleaning the more likely we are to get ill. Or is it just that we go to the doctor more often than our grandparents? Or that our doctors are more likely to find issues with us that in the past would have been ignored? Or is it diet? Are we all eating to much rubbish and not giving our bodies what they need to defend themselves? What about pollution and stress? Is that why? Personally I think we are all just a bunch of moaners.
Answers on a postcard please!
