Left Lung Predominance?

[CaroleHammett]

13 members have responded with their "handedness" so far: 6 left-handers and 7 right-handers, highly significant statistically given that 90% of all people are right-handed.

According to the above-referenced 09/05 article on left-handedness and breast cancer: "...researchers speculate that exposure to steroid hormones in the womb could both induce left-handedness and alter the breast tissue, making it more susceptible to developing cancer..."

Steroid hormones, however, would not appear to have any effect on lung cancer, besides which, a more recent article from 05/07 takes the left-handed theory even further, claiming that a study showed that "...left-handed women ... had a 40 per cent higher risk of dying from any cause, a 70 per cent higher risk of dying from cancer, and a 30 per cent higher risk of dying from diseases of the circulatory system. Left-handed women also had a two-fold increased risk of dying from breast cancer, close to a five-fold increased risk of dying from colorectal cancer, and more than a three-fold higher risk of cerebrovascular mortality..." (http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/02/int11.htm )

So far I have found no studies on men and women (as vs. women only), but it seems to me that we may well be on to something here.

Thanks, Sandra!

Carole

[Ellen in PA]

Well, I'm (naturally) right-handed and my primary tumor is in the upper right lobe. At least some of us are consistent. ;)

Ellen in PA