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Relationship Between Migraines & Left-Handedness

by Rena Sherwood

Most likely a southpawI only have one relative that I know of who is left handed. There might be others, but they’ve kept really quiet about it. My Aunt Marjorie had to endure a lot of teasing growing up — and, quite frankly, at over blah-de-blah years of age, she probably still gets her fair share of it. Unfortunately, she has more than her fair share of hardships in life. However, she does not get migraines.

Which somewhat contradicts the recent study between migraines and left-handnessness that recently came out from a group of German scientists. They only polled 100 Europeans and clearly had no contact whatsoever with my Aunt Marjorie.

Although the study ultimately was inconclusive on whether lefties have MORE migraines, but it suggests that being left-handed makes you more prone to migraines. As ususal for any kind of medical study, they have called for more medical studies to be done. I guess this keeps the medical studies industry going. (And can I buy stock in this group that keeps medical studies going on forever?)

About Left Handedness

Lefties are generally male (according to Wikipedia — not according to my family). There are about as many people who thinks left-handedness is a sign of genius, while just as many other people say “Whaddya, NUTS?” Famous left-handers include Sir Paul McCartney, Freddie Mercury and my Aunt Marjorie. Animals can also show signs of being right pawed (hooved, finned, whatever) or left pawed. For example, anyone who has ridden horses a lot will know horses have a tendency to behave better favoring one side than the other.

We could do a very unscientific study here and ask you, Gentle Readers, to answer the following as honestly as you possibly can on a May afternoon:

  • Are you left sided, right sided or ambidextorous?
  • Do you have migraines?
  • Are you related to me?

I’m not sure how the scientific community will handle the results of our little study. Probably by calling for more studies to be done.


3 Responses to “Relationship Between Migraines & Left-Handedness”

  1. MaxJerz Says:

    Rena, we had a recent thread about this over at MyMigraineConnection.com and it turned out that many of us are ambidextrous. You can find the thread here: http://forums.healthcentral.com/discussion/migraine/forums/a/tpc/f/4991085/m/65610272

    -MJ

  2. Rena Sherwood Says:

    Kew-WEL! Thanks for the heads up (so to speak)!

  3. becky p Says:

    I’m left-handed and am also a sufferer of migraines. As for the relation to you… probably not, but we could be. Do you have any cute single male relatives in their 20’s? Cause if you do, I would love to become a part of your family :)

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