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Left-handers more at risk of mental illness By Laura Clout Last Updated: 1:49am BST 31/07/2007 Left-handed people may have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, scientists have found. An international group of scientists, led by a team at Oxford University, have identified a gene that seems to increase the chance of being left-handed. The researchers said that the same gene - called LRRTM1 - may slightly increase the risk of developing the brain disorder. Schizophrenia is a highly complex condition that results in impaired perception and thought, it affects around one in every 100 people. Although little is known about...

In the iconic TV show "The Simpsons," Homer Simpson is constantly jealous of his neighbor Ned Flanders' prosperity -- so jealous that when the left-handed Flanders opens a store for left-handed people (the Leftorium), Simpson never tells any of his left-handed friends about it. "My kingdom for a left-handed tin opener," yells Mr. Burns, the richest man in the fictional town of Springfield, but Simpson keeps quiet as the Leftorium shuts down for lack of customers. The show's creators may not have known it then, but they were on to something -- Homer Simpson probably has a good reason to...

Breast cancer more likely in left-handers By Duncan Gardham (Filed: 26/09/2005) Women who are left-handed are more than twice as likely to contract breast cancer before the menopause as right-handed women, research has found. Scientists believe the cause may lie in the exposure to high levels of sex hormones before birth which can induce left-handedness as well as changes in breast tissue. Epidemiologists in the Netherlands looked at more than 12,000 healthy middle-aged women as part of their research, published in the British Medical Journal today. "Although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, our results support the hypothesis that left-handedness is...