So says Dr. Olga Basso, a left-handed woman disputing the findings that left-handed women may have a higher risk of dying, particularly from cancer and cerebrovascular disease.
When left-handed women were compared with the other women, and the data were adjusted for a number of potentially confounding factors, lefties had a 40 percent higher risk of dying from any cause, a 70 percent higher risk of dying from cancer, and a 30 percent higher risk of dying from diseases of the circulatory system.
Left-handed women also had a 2-fold increased risk of dying from breast cancer, close to a 5-fold increased risk of dying from colorectal cancer, and more than a 3-fold higher risk of cerebrovascular mortality.
The underlying mechanisms remain elusive, although genetics and environmental factors may be involved, Ramadhani and colleagues suggest. Much of the research into handedness and mortality has been fueled by the hypothesis that left-handedness is the result of an insult suffered during prenatal life, which ultimately leads to the early death.
The author of a commentary, Dr. Olga Basso, who is left-handed, is highly skeptical, in general, of research relating disease and death with handedness. "I am not alone in thinking that the literature on handedness suffers from a number of ills," regardless of the putative illnesses seen in those who are left-handed, she notes.
Every good southpaw is skeptical of these studies. A few years ago, a study purported to show a decrease in lefties as they age. Of course, what this study didn't take into account was that up until quite recently, it was quite common for left-handed children to be forced into right-handedness at an early age. This would, at least partially, explain why there were fewer left-handed people at 70 than at 20. This study says that a complex set of factors may explain why there are fewer left-handed people over 70.
As a left-handed woman, I'm not going to worry about this. Life has been full of uncomfortable inconveniences in a right-handed dominated world. Everything from can openers to scissors to power tools are typically right-handed. But in the age of the internet, you can find just about anything for left-handers. Cheers to us southpaws!
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