left handed

i heard a while back (like 5 months ago) that left handed people live on averege 7 years shorter then right handed people, has anyone else heard of this, and if so is it fact or fiction, and if fact then what is the reson for it?

I have also heard that, unfortunaley I can't verify if it's true or not. You might want to try Snopes 2

no i couldnt find anything on it on that site

Originally posted by trust_no_one
i heard a while back (like 5 months ago) that left handed people live on averege 7 years shorter then right handed people, has anyone else heard of this, and if so is it fact or fiction, and if fact then what is the reson for it?

You heard right.

On an average right handers live eight or nine years more. We aren't really sure why this really is, but we do have certain theories.

One of them is that lefties' health risks. Left-handers are more liely to have experienced brith stress, such as prematuraity or the need for assisted respiration. They also endure more headaches, have more accidents, partly dure to right-handed equipment, use more tabacco and alchohal nad suffer mroe immune system problems.

If you think about it, most equipment in day to day lives are made for right handers, so in a dangerous working situation, lefties get injured more. There could also be genetic differences, but we are still debating about them.

But it is not guranteed you will die sooner if you are leftie, for example there have been famous long lived left handers, such as Benjamin Franklin, Charlie Chaplin and Pablo Picasso, having range between 84 and 93.

Surf

I've never heard this about lefties.
I'm mixed handed. Does this mean I will live maybe 4 years
less than a righty?

well according to surfup it seems like its a lot related to stress and accidints from using the wronge handed tool so if u can use both you would probibly use the right hand for the right tool so you probibly wouldnt die any earlier then the averege life (or at least not because of using your left hand)

Originally posted by trust_no_one
well according to surfup it seems like its a lot related to stress and accidints from using the wronge handed tool so if u can use both you would probibly use the right hand for the right tool so you probibly wouldnt die any earlier then the averege life (or at least not because of using your left hand

)

Well on going research not only in this area, but a lot of areas, show that genetics play a major role in determining behavior. So there is no absolute factor.

Elaine, what did you learn first? Even if you learn left first, you are in pretty good shape because of your right handedness, unless you go blind when operating heavy machinery.

Surf

Yeah, I'm left handed and i've heard this one too. 9 years seems to be what i hear the most. I have a twin brother who is right handed and so is the rest of my family, and i do seem to get sick more than them and i have health problems which they don't. But it's also an interesting point to note that left handers are also more highly represented (than average) in people with a mental illness and also in those people considered to be genius.
But i've always wondered if this points to the idea that you are born either left or right handed (or both), because how could simply having a preference to use your left hand cause such problems?
-Tom

I know that left handed people favor the right side of the brain, therefore right handed people are not in their right mind most of the time.

Hummm, this theory sounds like bunk to me. Ok, except for using the right-handed chainsaw type thing. I see no biological reason for any difference whatsoever. Maybe I should do some independent research and get back to this thread. Perhaps we've discovered yet another urban legend.

Another lefty here. Wow, I've never heard we don't live as long as righties.

Partof1 brings up a good point, where is the evidence?

If your interested, there's some more interesting information on lefties here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by tomh31
But it's also an interesting point to note that left handers are also more highly represented (than average) in people with a mental illness and also in those people considered to be genius
-Tom

ya ive noticed that a higher % left handed people are famous then the % of right handed people who are famous. (even though both % are really low)

(by the way this is trust_no_one on one of his friends accounts

[edit on 5-3-2005 by theonlyalf]