While women are often deemed to be the “fairer” sex, recent studies have proved that women are in fact stronger. And not just when in comes to pain tolerance (demonstrated during child birth), but women genetically have stronger immune systems.

It turns out that the Y-chromosome is exactly why the “manflu” exists. X-chromosomes have microRNAs (a cousin of DNA!), the microRNAs “silence” immunity genes on the male X-chromosome. As women have two X-chromosomes, when immunity genes are “silenced” the other one plays back up. Just like a good friend. See, sisterhood is even ingrained in our chromosomes.

Okay, so what does this science mumbo-jumbo really mean? Basically, as with many biological mysteries, it boils down to one thing. Women have babies and therefore need to protect them. While motherhood is probably far from your mind (unless you’re thinking about how to prevent it!), you can thank the genetic gods that this is why you fight off infections better than the men in your life.

According to Dr. Eleanor Fish, a professor from the University of Toronto, she says that the difference in immune systems between men and women has likely evolved, as when it comes to survival of the species, women are more likely to survive. Because let’s face it, in order to keep a species alive, it takes more women to push out babies, then it does men to impregnate them.

The only issue with women’s advanced immune systems is that we are more apt to develop autoimmune diseases (aka when your body attacks its own cells). So let’s just all try and stay healthy and prevent sickness in the future.

We thought we’d help and every Thursday our friend Dr. Lissa Rankin will be answering your questions. The ones you couldn’t ask your doctor in person. Just leave your questions in the comments, or send em over to us. (We’ll keep it all anonymous for you.) Dr. Lissa will answer anything – really, anything – about sex and other lady things. Don’t be shy; she’s waiting for ya!

Q: I recently found out that I have HPV. I was so shocked and upset by the news that I couldn’t really think of anything to ask my doctor. So, I was wondering what I should do. This was the first time I’ve ever been tested, so do I have to tell every guy I’ve ever been with (even those I didn’t actually have sex with)? And do I have to tell all future partners?

A: First of all, I’m sorry you have Human PapillomaVirus (HPV). If it makes you feel any better, I have had it too. You didn’t say whether your HPV is the type that causes genital warts or abnormal pap smears (they tend to be different strains but may travel together). But I’d be happy to educate you about HPV in general, since you were too freaked out to ask your doc.

What is HPV?

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease, and it will infect 75% of young women before the age of 50, if they don’t get vaccinated.  What is HPV? It’s the virus that causes genital and anal warts, abnormal pap smears, and cervical cancer. How do you get it? Sex mostly, but even virgins can get it from skin to skin contact while fooling around. And condoms don’t necessarily protect you, since your labia can touch the skin around your partner’s genitals, even with a condom on. All it takes is intimate genital touching between you and your partner.

To make matters worse, the strains of HPV that tend to cause abnormal pap smears and cervical cancer don’t cause any problems in men. SO THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW THEY HAVE IT! Which means they’re passing it around from woman to woman, like a beach ball. You gotta wonder when the guy says, “Oh, that’s so weird. ALL my girlfriends have had abnormal pap smears.” Duh, dude. It’s you!

Even if you’re a virgin when you hook up with a guy, you can end up with HPV- even if he has only slept with one other girl. This is not a disease of freaks and hoochies. (If it is, then I’m one of those hoochies, since I got it from my husband.  Poor guy.  He feels bad.) Even if you’re really careful, you can still get it, and next thing you know, you’ve got genital warts and cervical cancer. To make matters worse, because HPV is a virus, there’s no real cure, the way there is for most bacteria.  Natural treatments aimed at supporting the immune system can help you clear the virus, but ultimately, you’re at the mercy of your immune system.  So if you get HPV, you may have it for years.

What Should You Tell Your Partners?

To keep your karma clean, it’s not a bad idea to tell your past and future sexual partners. Chances are, more than half of them have already been exposed, and one of them was the one who gave it to you.  Because many strains of HPV do not cause problems for the guy, he may not even know he has it. But technically, anyone who may have been infected by you should tell future sexual partners that they may carry HPV and may be able to transmit it. It gets very complicated, because your immune system may clear you of HPV forever at some point. So will you still be infectious five years from now? Probably not. But maybe. This is why it’s such a big problem. Some women seem to clear HPV, only to have it show up again when their immune system is suppressed, as it normally is during pregnancy.

So What Can You Do About It?

Not a whole lot. If you have access to an integrative medicine doctor or naturopath, they  may be able to help you with some herbs and supplements that can stimulate your natural immune response. But otherwise, it’s all about treating any problems the HPV causes. For example, warts can be frozen off or treated with acid or medication. Abnormal pap smears need follow up and sometimes treatment. But there’s no magic pill that can cure your HPV.

Health guidelines and facts are constantly changing as we learn more about the human body and what we need to stay strong. To maintain optimal health, you need to keep up to date with the newest in fitness, nutrition and medical research.

Check out the latest headlines about that unique body of yours:

- So you think you’ll impress your crush by taking on a beer bong like a champ? A new study published in the March issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors asked women how much they thought they needed to drink at a social event to interest a man. The women’s estimates were more than twice what the guys said they would prefer. At your next party, drink less and truly impress!

- Has sex with your man been more pain than pleasure? Blame last week’s sushi dinner! A study of the latest food poisoning outbreak in North Carolina reveals a link between sexual pain and consuming predatory fish contaminated with Ciquatera Fish Poisoning (CFP). Men have reported painful ejaculation and women have described a burning sensation. Unfortunately, fish contaminated with CFP cannot be detected through odor or taste and is not a result of spoilage or preparation. Your best bet is to avoid predatory fish like Barracuda, Grouper, Red Snapper and Amberjack. Ask your waiter if any of the dishes contain these fish.

- I am the biggest baby when it comes to getting vaccinated. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just eat yogurt instead of getting stabbed in the arm? Researchers have developed a way to use the probiotics in yogurt to release a vaccine through your stomach’s immune system. This method was quicker and more effective than injections in a study using mice and an anthrax vaccine. The scientists are even developing a yogurt vaccine for breast cancer and other infectious diseases!

- Your younger sister may soon be able to access the morning-after pill, even if she’s under 18! A U.S. court ruling this week will allow 17-year-olds to obtain the pill, sold as Plan B, within a month. U.S. District Judge Edward Korma is asking the FDA to reconsider whether it should be available without any age restrictions at all.

Who knows what the world’s best doctors and scientists will discover next week? In the meantime, don’t drink too much, watch your Red Snapper intake, eat your yogurt, and keep an eye on your sister!

Saturday night: You’re at a frat party. You just won three consecutive games of beer pong. You don’t think twice about drinking your cups, despite the fact that you’ve seen the ball land in other peoples’ used cups, roll along the basement floor, and watched the ball pass between thirty-something unwashed hands.

What gives?!?

Obviously, beer pong isn’t the most sanitary party game out there. But you have the “water cup,” right? That cup of tepid, dirty water is totes gonna disinfect that old, recycled ping pong ball (that was most likely found under someone’s bed 10 minutes before party time). Or not.

Some microbiology students at George Washington University decided to test exactly how detrimental to your health beer pong can be. If you like beer pong, you may want to skip this article.

After a somewhat mild night of beer pong, consisting of eight students and thirty beers, the budding scientists collected samples from each of the beer pong cups and the water cup. What’d they find? A haven for germs. Bacteria from the E. Coli, salmonella, and pneumonia families were present in every single test tube containing samples from the game. Oh, and that water cup that everyone used to clean the balls? That was the most infected, and housed the most bacteria growth over night.

This study centered on beer pong only, but what about other potentially sickening games? When’s the last time you did a kegstand, putting your mouth on the tap that’s been who-knows-where after a dozen other people slurped down a few seconds worth of brew? How about the time you stood in for flip cup, and rotated through other peoples’ cups round after round?

We put our mouths everywhere when there’s cheap beer involved (and some of us really put our mouths everywhere), but we’re super cautious about where we place our ASS when we’re in a public place? Just some food for thought.

Not that you have to quit beer pong — hell, no! To be just a tad cleaner, change out the water cups and beer pong balls throughout the night, and keep your own beer cup to drink out of after the ball hits (just dump the shot’s worth of beer into your own cup).

Alcohol is bad enough for your immune system; don’t give germs a better opportunity to take up residence in your body.

If you’re in college, chances are you’ve run across those infamous peach pills at some point. I’m talking about Adderall. These little orange suckers are everywhere, from the library to the lecture hall…to your local sketchy party.

Adderall is designed to be used as study tool for students diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, but you don’t need to have either diagnosis to feel the desired effects of this drug. It’s an amphetamine, so it enhances your attention span and wakes you up, thus helping you pull all-nighters during finals week and just have more stamina for academia in general.

Basically, it’s like Red Bull. On cocaine. With five iced lattes.

But, Adderall is not always used for it’s intended medical purpose (shocker!). These pills can also aid in weight loss, making it popular with girls looking for an easy way to shed the pounds. Not only that, but it’s used to help people party more effectively. Adderall keeps you awake and sharpens your mind, both allowing you to keep that party goin’ a little longer.

As a prescribed user of Adderall, I have used the drug for all of the above reasons. I’ve taken Adderall to help me write twenty pagers, to drop some of my winter weight, and to party.

My Adderall partying usage has ranged from popping half a pill to invigorate bar-hopping to snorting mass quantities of the stuff with a small group of friends. (The latter is not so fun. Putting anything up your nose is foolish, and Adderall is no exception.) At first it was exciting; your heart beats a million miles a minute and you can’t stop talking. Anyone you’re having a conversation with instantly becomes your best friend. You get them; they get you. Best of all: it doesn’t give you the munchies, and due to the sharpening of the mind, you can drink like a sailor and still keep your composure.

However, four hours later, you start to become sick to your stomach. The happy high wears off and all you want to do is hide for days. After a particularly intense binge I remember my crash more distinctly than the high because it was that terrible. Not to mention, this binge did some serious damage on my immune system and didn’t help my mono. Even worse, the people I did it with that time just talked about Seinfeld. All night. At a lightning fast pace. Then we ended up watching Fight Club, and I couldn’t even appreciate Brad Pitt’s hotness because you know what else Adderall does? Takes all the blood away from your downtown area and rushes it to your brain.

No sex drive, yippee!

Even after the lame experiences of partying with it, I still take Adderall for classes and my studies. I’ve learned to use it in moderation and only when necessary. Most importantly, I refuse to give it to people, especially friends. When people know you have it, it’s difficult to know whether they want to see you for you, or for your orange bottle.

What are your thoughts? Any experiences with the peach stuff, good or bad?

First day of class. I’m sitting in the front row, binder open and pen at the ready. The teacher is going over the syllabus. “This is the attendance policy in the class. You are allowed…”

“*sniff.*”

“…absences.”

I wrinkled my nose in distaste and glared at the various people in my Criminology class, coughing and sniffling and sneezing for a while, leaning forward and straining to hear my professor. “As for the papers, the due dates have been posted on…”

“*cough*”

Gritting my teeth, I glanced over my shoulder at the girl to the left, covering her mouth and looking miserable. I turn my head back to my teacher and listen to her explain to me why I’m taking a course on crime when a horrendous gurgling grunt comes from the back of my throat, and I am horrified at the way I just cleared my throat and made the same sound my mother’s Camry makes when it starts up. No way in hell on the first day in class was I already sick.

I was determined to not be taking off days to roll around miserably in my dorm so early in the semester, and sure enough, a few days and a few tissues later, I’m back to my normal and almost entirely healthy self – without the help of anything from the “Cold/Flu” aisle in Rite Aid. How?

Sit back and learn, ladies.

The first key to getting better is to not get sick at all: Everyone knows that Vitamin C is vital to keeping your immune system ready incase it needs to punch some cold’s lights out, and you should have some every day, either via your daily glass of orange juice or through products like Emergen-C. There are also things that include Vitamin-C but also keep your immune system ready for a fight, one of my favorites being Airborne.

Then there are things that don’t have any Vitamin C at all, but are still well-known to help your immune system, like Echinacea/Goldenseal. You can get this stuff as a vitamin pill or as a tasty tea, but keep in mind that Echinacea is a mild bloodthinner and you should really only use it when you’re in a place that surrounds you with sick people – like school.

Once you reach the point of no return, it’s a matter of getting better as quickly as you can: Colds and especially flus are things you have to nip in the bud, like your beau’s bad habit of chewing his fingernails. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids and yes, chicken soup can help you feel better. I swear by Progresso.

SLEEP. It keeps you well rested enough so that your body can fight the good fight, and it’s a good excuse to lay around, watch TV, and get your guy or girl to bring you food.

Stay hydrated, especially if you have a slight fever (if it’s over 100 degrees, get your rear end to the hospital right now!). Soup, water, orange juice, and tea can help. Chamomile helps you rest. Lemon and ginger will ease your sore throat, especially if you add a touch of honey. Horehound, as disgusting as it is, works like magic to clear out all the phlegm and gross crap in your lungs. Hold your breath while you drink this stuff.

Try your best not to run to CVS: I know you’re miserable and the last thing you want is to be snorting like an angry warthog all night long, but most over-the-counter medicine only make your symptoms a little more bearable and don’t help you get better, even if you’d like to think they do. If you’re feeling stuffed up, take a nice hot shower or invest in a humidifier. It’ll help clear up your nasal passages without drying them out and thusly making you sicker.

Err on the side of caution: If your cold lasts for more than about a week and a half, if you get a high fever, if your ears start to ache or if you start coughing up weird-colored mucus, go to a doctor or the hospital RIGHT AWAY. These could be flu symptoms, and trust me on this one when I say you don’t want to screw around with that virus.

Fool me twice, shame on me: Once you feel better, take better care of yourself! Take things that will keep your immune system ready to win a KO match and eat a healthy, varied diet. During cold and flu season, it’s important that you stay clean too: wash your hands as often as you can. After that, there isn’t much you can do but stick it out and pray for the best.

Being sick isn’t fun. For a person like me who has allergies to just about everything, I know this. But there’s stuff that you can do to stay at least relatively healthy and, hey, they’re pretty damn cheap. And what’s to lose aside from that irritating sniffle?

But at the same time, it’s summertime! (Notice the difference with the exclamation point. Adds a nice exciting touch don’t you think?) And a little humidity and ugly hair is not going to keep me cooped up inside. I’m spending as much time outside as possible thank-you-very-much because before I know it I’ll be knee deep in snow, picking icicles off my eye-lashes (yes that has happened before) longing to be drenched in sweat.

So in order to maximize my time outdoors this summer, I have found the key is staying hydrated. And now, the same great people who brought us those yummy Luna Bars (try Carmel Nut Brownie as a mid-afternoon snack) are making it easier for us to get in our 8-10 glasses of water a day with Luna Elixir’s. Four great guilt free flavors that not only keep you hydrated but pack a whole lot of goodness for our female figures.

Even if you are only 1-2% dehydrated its effects can take a toll on your bod: nausea, headache, irritability, fatigue etc. Staying hydrated will help keep your regulate your body, keep your skin clearer, your immune system stronger and will help flush toxins out of your body. Not to mention, getting plenty of fluid is a key element in helping your weight loss efforts.

Whether you’re spending a lot of time in your aviators and swim suit or workout gear this summer, it’s crucial to stay hydrated. Luna Elixir’s are all loaded with antioxidants and vitamins and come in flavors Pomegranate Berry, Dragonfruit Kiwi, Orange Passionfruit and Raspberry Lychee. For more info on hydration and Luna products click here.

Hydration has never tasted sooo yummy!