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Northern Indiana Hand and Wrist
August 13th is National Left-Handed Day, a celebration of all the lefties out there. Read Dr. Mahon’s previous blog entry about left-handed people below.
Left-handed people are special — just ask one! Like being red-headed, left-handedness carries implications, prejudices, and suppositions. Whenever I see that someone is left-handed I am impressed: I know it means something, but I’m not sure what.
Boxers hate facing a left-handed opponent and making the necessary changes in their fighting style. The crafty southpaw is legendary in baseball, and a left-handed bat coming off the bench has won many games in the late innings. Just last year Tim Tebow took the NFL by storm throwing out of the Bronco backfield, left-handed, to Demarius Thomas in overtime to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers. The physical and mental abilities of the left-handed cannot be questioned:
In the general population 7% of people are left-handed. There is some genetic predisposition to left-handedness but the expression is muted. If it confers an advantage it is not obvious, but there is some evidence that the incidence of left-handedness is increasing. Certainly the acceptance of left-handedness is greater than it once was.
I have not noticed any differences in the healing rates or injury rates in left-handed people. The right-handed commonly expect their left hand to be weaker, but that is actually not the case. Since the dominant hand is used for fine skills, the non-dominant hand is used to hold heavy objects steady while the other hand does the detailed work. When measuring grip strengths in the office we expect the non-dominant hand to be as strong or stronger than the dominant hand.
One advantage left-handers have is when using the QWERTY keyboard. Over 3000 words can be typed with only the left hand as opposed to 300 with the right hand, and 56% of the keystrokes made when touch-typing are made with the left hand. Current technology will erode the left-hand advantage though, since typing with your left thumb is no faster than typing with your right thumb.
We have no cure for left-handedness, and it’s obvious that none is needed. When dealing with the left-handed it is best to keep an open mind, and remember that many studies indicate the left-handed are more intelligent than average, better able to think originally, and better looking. Again, just ask them!
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