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December 2, 2008 9:34:39 AM CST

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Lefty Women Die Younger

Posted May 2, 07 12:01 PM CDT in Science & Health 

(Newser) – Left-handed women have a dramatically higher risk of mortality from just about every disease, a new study reported in the Telegraph shows. Dutch researchers who followed more than 12,000 women for nearly 13 years found lefties had a 40% greater chance of dying from any cause, 70% higher from cancer, and 30% higher from circulatory diseases.

Studies linking handedness and mortality have been spurred by the theory that being left handed is the result of damage to a fetus in utero, which could also account for steeper mortality rates. But there are nay-sayers: "I doubt that my left hand is prematurely pulling me toward my grave," says one environmental health scientist, a leftie.

Source Daily Telegraph (UK)

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Left hand   (KRT Photos)
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health • women • medicine • disease • women's health • lefties


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