Left-Handed Women And The Cancer Link
According to researchers at the University Medical Center in Utrecht in the Netherlands, left-handed women are more than twice as likely to suffer from breast cancer before reaching menopause as those who are right-handed. The Dutch researchers examined over 12,000 middle aged women born between 1932 and 1941, over an 18-year period. They believe that an exposure to high levels of sex hormones in the womb can lead to left-handedness and changes in the breast tissue.
However left-handed women are advised not to be worried about these findings, because it is just not enough to link left-handed women with a complex condition like breast cancer. Larger-scale studies are needed to determine if there is indeed such a link.
Source: Made K Ramadhani et al “Innate left handedness and risk of breast cancer: case-cohort study” British Medical Journal (26 Sept 2005)
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