Question: I have heard that if you are left handed you live 9 years less. Do you know if this is true?

I’m not sure it’s 9 years less, but it certainly appears to be the case!
And I found a tonne of great facts about being left handed!

One in ten of the world’s population is left-handed, Lefthanders International states. Men are 1.5 times more prone to left-handedness than women are, while information also states there is a tendency for one of a pair of twins to be left-handed.

Left-handers differ from right-handed people just by preferring to use their left hand for various activities like reaching for things, throwing, showing and catching. Still, they were often stigmatised for being allies of evil forces and the devil himself. For instance, at the beginning of the 17th century, there was a belief in France that the devil “Christened” his followers with his left hand.

Mensa claims 20 percent of its members are left-handed, while statistics show that there are more sinistral people with highest IQ scores than right-handed people. This was proven by the research of doctor Alan Searleman of the St. Lawrence University in New York, showing that left-handed people are intellectually advanced in most cases, as well as that they have more developed language skills than right-handed people do. Perhaps this is the reason why left-handed people are more dominant in creative professions.

Most left-handed people face the right side when writing or drawing. Stuttering and dyslexia are more common in left-handed people and they easily adjust to watching under water. They excel in sports like tennis (famous Croatian Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic for instance), baseball and swimming. Scientists have discovered that sinistral people reach puberty four to five months earlier than right-handers.
Four out of five original Macintosh computer designers were left-handed, as well as twenty five percent of Apollo astronauts. However, research has shown that left-handed people live significantly shorter than right-handed people, perhaps the reason why is the fact they live in a “right-orientated” world.

Hand orientation develops in unborn babies and it is often the hand which the baby keeps closest to its mouth. Still, recent research shows that genetics is involved in the process of deciding which hand someone will use. During the middle of 2007, LRRTM1 was discovered, the first gene connected with the appearance of left-handedness, as well as psychic illnesses like schizophrenia. There is also the Geschwind theory, named after its author, neurologist Norman Geschwind, who claims if a child is exposed to larger testosterone levels before birth, it will be left-handed.

As the entire world, one might say, is right-orientated, left-handed people often feel clumsy and gawky. For instance, scissors, knives, can openers, cash machines… everything was made for right-handed people. Of course, imaginative house appliance manufacturers saw a chance to earn money here and in Western European countries there are a large number of specialised shops for the left-handed, as well as online. Such products largely make everyday life easier for land-handed people, who confirm it themselves, posting on Internet forums, saying they feel less singled out, clumsy and awkward.