Life is Longer in the Right-Hands

Right-handed people live substantially longer than left-handed people, according to a recent study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, which was conducted by Diane Halpern, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, compared the death and accident rates of right- and left-handed people.

“The results are striking in their magnitude,” said Halpern.

The Researchers studied 987 death certificates in two Southern California counties, and found that on average right-handed people lived nine years longer than left handed people. According to the study, right-handed females lived an average of six years longer than left-handed females, and right-handed males live 11 years longer than left handed males.

The accident rates do not fair-well for left-handers either.

In fact, left-handers, who make up 10 percent of the U.S. population are four times more likely to die in injuries from driving, and six times more likely to die from any kind of accident. Which Halpern says is not just a coincidence.

“Almost all engineering is geared to the right hand and right foot,” she said. “There are many more car and other accidents among left-handers because of their environment.”

But still, these results are not cause for drastic fear in left-handers, the right-handed Halpern says.

"It is important that mothers of left-handed children not be alarmed and not try to change which hand a child uses," she said. “It (predominant-hand) should not of course, be used to predict the life span of an individual. It does not take into account the fitness of any individual.”

And according to Halpern, there still is one thing that can not be denied by anyone.

“There are many-many old left-handed people.”