Elondra Harr
Submission Query
411 Skipper Bowles Dr.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
January 30th, 2016
Dear Ms. Boyd,
According to your agency’s website, you are actively looking for a writer to publish a blog about a popular science topic affecting the world today. I’m pleased to introduce my blog post, “Women Stronger than Men? Studies show Women may have better defenses against flu virus than Men”. Well first, let me start off by giving you my definition of the flu. The Flu: a highly common, potentially deadly viral infection that has caused a tremendous amount of Hysteria throughout the world. I personally wanted to know more about this infamous disease so I decided to write this article from the angle of: Who’s more susceptible? Men or Women? I found this to be quite the fascinating topic and I would like to share this information I found with the readers of your journal. In this blog, I discuss several factors leading up to which sex is actually “stronger”.
Are males really the stronger sex? Or is a just an old belief that really has no credible scientific facts to back it up? Well, some researchers believe that women’s immune systems are actually stronger than men due to the female hormone estrogen. From News Medical, I found that Sabra L. Klein discusses how the female hormone Estrogen actually helps fight off the flu virus. Klein and her colleagues conducted research to see how infected cells from males and females respond to different types of estrogen. Using this research, I wrote about how Estrogen works to fight off the flu virus. My blog post also addresses the fact that certain genes between the sexes switch on and off at certain points, causing women to possibly have an advantage when dealing with autoimmune diseases. I give the readers a better understanding of the differences between women’s immune systems and men’s by providing a few research studies conducted by highly influential research labs at Standford University and John Hopkins School of Public Health. I also add the effects of the male sex hormone testosterone on the flu virus. Studies show that men with higher levels of testosterone may be more likely to get the flu than men with lower levels. I include a study where a multinational team from Stanford University, France, and the University of North Carolina conducted a study where they took blood from 54 women and 37 men of different ages and studied a variety of immune system proteins and cells using complex systems to detect gene expression. I think the readers will find this study very interesting and gives them more insight on how to flu virus works and how genetics really play a significant role.
In this article, I will be covering the scientific reasons as to why women have generally stronger immune systems than men. I display several research studies giving actual proof to the scientific conundrum. To make this article even more useful, I include preventative steps from the CDC for readers to follow to make sure they’re doing their best to keep themselves from getting the flu. I end my blog post by adding precautions that the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends you take to help you prevent the flu. I believe by adding preventative methods to the blog will give the readers a sense of hope that even though their immune systems might be genetically “weaker”, there are still some things they can do to help prevent them from getting sick. I also include the life cycle of a flu virus just so the readers can get a better understanding of what happens to your body when the flu virus actually invades. I think the readers will appreciate this. This interesting topic will surely be quite fascinating and informative to the readers.
Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Elondra Harr