Baylor Health Care System: Is being left-handed a handicap? The short and useless answer is “yes and no.”

About
Current Issue
Past Issues
Interviews
Staff and Editorial Board
Submit a Manuscript

	Current Issue: Volume 21, Number 3 • July 2008		Return to Table of Contents
			PDF of this Article

Is being left-handed a handicap? The short and useless answer is “yes and no.”

Adrian E. Flatt, MD, FRCS

Since no abstract is available, the first 100 words of the article are shown.

Certainly in earlier days, sinistrality was a problem for children learning to write. An eminent sinister-handed Dallas plastic surgeon reported: “In parochial summer school the nuns were determined to change me and actually tied my left hand behind my back. The result of this action was tremendous tenacity and endurance! . . . We write left to right and smear our fresh ink across the page.” He added: “Numerous theories throughout history have claimed that being left-handed causes developmental and immune disorders. It has also been said that left-handers die younger, have more diseases and are even considered inept. None of these theories have been proven” (1).