Table of contents:
- The various difficulties left-handed people may face
- 1. Difficulty learning and doing activities
- 2. It's easier to feel down
- 3. More prone to mental disorders
- 4. May be at risk for breast cancer
- 5. Probably not a long life
Are you right-handed or left-handed? Throughout your life, you have no doubt met one or two of your friends who tend to use their left hand. This person is usually referred to as a left-handed person (left-handed). Even though being left-handed is unique and rarely encountered, there are some challenges they may have to face. What are the bad effects?
The various difficulties left-handed people may face
Being a left handed user tends to be at risk for several chronic diseases and also experiences many obstacles in daily life. Not all left-handed people experience difficulties and face the problems listed below. However, a number of studies do show some common complaints experienced by those who are left-handed.
Here are various health problems and obstacles in everyday life for left-handed people, as reported by Reader Digest.
1. Difficulty learning and doing activities
Source: Time
Children who tend to use their left hand often face problems at school, for example when they have to write in a spiral-bound book with the middle volume, they also often have difficulty taking music arts classes such as playing the guitar.
A 2009 study published in the journal Demography found that left-handed children tended to score lower in skills such as reading, writing, word processing and social development.
Then, an economist at Harvard University, Joshua Goodham revealed that left-handed people tend to have learning disorders such as dyslexia, do not continue school, and work in jobs that require little thinking skills.
In addition, various obstacles that must be faced by a left-handed user at home are difficulty opening a door whose handle has to be pressed down first or when using a can opener.
2. It's easier to feel down
According to a study in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, people who are dominant with their left hand take longer to process feelings and are more likely to have negative emotions. It is likely that this is influenced by the views of others.
There are still many parents who assume that using their left hand is a bad and impolite habit, for example eating with their left hand. Additionally, in some countries left-handed people are often called derogatory nicknames.
3. More prone to mental disorders
A 2013 study at Yale University in the United States found about 40 percent of schizophrenic patients had a tendency to write with their left hand.
In addition, another study published in the Journal of Trauma and Stress showed that left-handed people were more likely to express symptoms of post-traumatic stress after watching a scary or gruesome film. They tend to experience more negative emotions during and after watching movies.
However, again this is not the case for everyone who is left-handed. Many are left-handed but have a healthy mental state.
4. May be at risk for breast cancer
Research published in the British Journal of Cancer found that left-handed women had twice the risk of developing breast cancer before menopause than right-handed women. However, after entering menopause, the risk of breast cancer for left-handed and right-handed women is equal.
Researchers temporarily believe that the greater risk of breast cancer in left-handed women is due to the influence of intraiterine hormones that affect the brain and tissue cells in the breast.
5. Probably not a long life
Instead of praying for nonsense, research shows that left-handed people are less likely to live a long life. Why? This is presumably because they are trying to fit everything that is designed for right-handed people. Over time they can accumulate anxiety, stress, and feelings of depression. In addition, they have a higher risk of developing several types of diseases than people with right hands.
The study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that people who were dominant with the left hand were more likely to have an accident than people who were dominant with the right.
However, it should be noted that the aforementioned challenges are not fixed. There are many other factors that put left-handed people at risk of disease or experiencing a problem. For example, the environment in which they live, cultural factors, and their motor skills.
The risks and challenges above also don't only apply to left-handed people. People whose dominant right hand is also of course susceptible to illness or accidents, because so far there is no disease that will only affect left-handed people.
