Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
Left Handers Rule
1003 Left Handers Rule
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr Norbert Herzog.
And I’m Dr. David Niesel.
Sometimes I feel like an alien. Why? I am very left-handed. I can’t do anything with my right hand. While this can give me the upper hand (ha!) in tennis, the reality is most of the world is backwards to me. Same for one of my children who had to learn the downsides of being a south paw.
Scientists have learned a few things about left handers. Your chances of being left-handed go up if one of your parents is, but you’re still more likely to be a righty. Only a quarter of left-handed children have left-handed parents.
And only ten percent of people in the world are lefties. Just one percent is ambidextrous, meaning they can use both hands. Which hand you favor is a complex trait involving genes and the environment. Twin studies suggest only a quarter of handedness is genetic while the rest comes from a child’s surroundings.
One of those genes may have been found by a new study using the UK Biobank, which contains a large set of genomic data for biomedical research. They compared three hundred thousand right handers with thirty thousand left handers.
They found that a rare variant of the TUBB4B gene was three times more present in left handers, but not all of them had it. Other genes may be involved, but we also already know that factors outside genetics have a larger influence.
They vary greatly including testosterone levels in the womb, low birth weight, societal pressures, right hand tools along with many other impacts.
As a left-hander I get to say this – despite some disadvantages, left-handers Rule!
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast.
