Struggles and Facts About Left-Handed People

Did you know that there is a holiday for left-handed people? That day is August 13, known as National Left Handers Day.

Most people know at least one person in their life that is left-handed. A recent study by Harvard University shows that about 12 percent of the world's population are left-handed. 

A lot of people don't know though about the everyday struggles of being left-handed.

There are annoying struggles that left-handed people who still study in school have to face almost everyday. For example, it is a pain for them to write on a spiral notebook and in a binder because their hand and arm gets in the way of the spiral or the rings of the binder. Another example is that when left-handers write, especially with pen, their writing smears due to them using their left hand. Then the lead from the pencil or then ink from the pen transfers onto the side of the hand.

For left-handed people that do not have to study anymore, there are still life struggles that they have to face everyday that must be unbearable. 

When paying for groceries, clothes, or anything really at the checkout counter, the credit car checkouts are most likely right-handed; with the credit car slot on the right of the machine, rather then left. 

However, without minding the struggles of being a lefty, there are still some pretty cool facts about being-handed.

Some of those facts happen to include some very important people of the U.S.A. Four of the last presidents of the U.S. are left-handed. Those four presidents are Gerald Ford, H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. 

With being left-handed there comes some advantages that right-handed people don't have. For example, left-handed people adjust more easily to seeing underwater, lefties have a higher chance of getting a higher IQ,and lefties are better able to multitask. 

So for those lefties out there that feel horrible for being left-handed, don't be because there are still cool advantages and facts about being left-handed.

False Myths 

When we were younger we were told many myths that we believed were true. Such as cutting your hair makes it grow faster or that if you eat watermelon seeds, then you'll grow a watermelon in your stomach. As we grow older and more mature many of the myths our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, anybody who told us these types of myths or that we were taught are actually proven false. 

Chameleons actually do not change their color to hide or blend within an environment. Chameleons change the color and pattern of their skin to communicate with each other and the color of their skin is used to express their emotion and their mating behavior. 

In the bible, the apple is not really known to be the forbidden fruit because some people claim it be a fruit similar to a pomegranate or a fig, but not an apple. People only believed that the apple was the forbidden fruit because of the Latin words "evil" and "apple" in a pun. 

Humans have more than senses and are believed to have between nine to twenty senses. Some of these senses include balance, temperature, pain, and more.

Napoleon Bonaparte was known in history books to be short, like 5'4 or even shorter, but that is not true. Napoleon's height was actually 5'7. 

The number 420 is not directed for the use of marijuana. The Los Angeles Police Department, or LAPD, uses this number as a code for "juvenile disturbance."

George Washington never had teeth or dentures made up of wood. His teeth were made up of gold, ivory, led, and teeth from other people.

When we stay in the shower or swimming pool too long and our fingers start wrinkling, it is not because our fingers are absorbing water. The reason why our fingers wrinkle when they stay in water for too long is because of the "autonomic nervous system."

The myth that cracking your knuckles will give your arthritis is not true. The sound that you get when you are cracking your knuckles is due to the pockets of gas between the joints of your fingers. In the future, cracking your knuckles only leads to a lower grip strength. 

They say that if you chew a piece of gum and swallow it by accident that it will stay in your stomach forever. However, this myth is false and if someone actually swallows a piece of gum, then it will only stay in their stomach for about a week, but it will not stay in your stomach for years.

When you die, your hair and nails don not continue to grow. Once your body is dead, it will start to decay along with your skin, nails, hair, organs, etc.

When dropping a piece of food on the floor, the five-second rule does not apply because all floors are usually generally filthy. It does not matter how fast you try to save a piece of food from the floor because once that piece of food touches the floor, it immediately caught some of the bacteria from the floor.

Those are just some of the myths that are proven to to be untrue and that you probably thought were true. Hopefully in the future, you do not believe everything that someone has told you because it may not all be true and just a false myth. 

Sleep

Sleep is a very crucial part of our everyday health that I am sure most people lack of. People lack a lot of the amount of sleep due to working, doing homework, raising kids, etc. 

Adults and teens should sleep every night for an amount of at least 8 hours. However, most adults and teens do not sleep for at least 8 hours and instead I hear some teens and adults only get 5 hours or even less than that. I myself am one of those teens who only sleeps 5 hours or less sometimes.

When people have a lack of sleep it is not good for their body and with a lack of sleep, their immune system gets weaker. When their immune system gets weaker they are more prone to getting sick, like catching the flu, than a person who sleeps at least an amount of 8 hours every night. If those people who sleep so little every night get sick, then their body will not be able to function as better as it needs to during the day when they have so many things to do.

To solve this problem of having a lack of sleep, I propose that there should be sleep pods in every high school and job facility. Sleep pods are basically improvised beds that you can just use anytime you want.

With sleeping pods, the number of people who lack a number of about 8 hours of sleep everyday will greatly decrease. More sleep also decreases the chances of one getting sick because of their immune system weakening due to the lack of sleep. 

When people have more sleep they obviously have more energy that they need for their everyday lives. For example, parents will have more energy that they need when they have to take care of their children because raising a child is not easy business to deal with. Another example is that students will not have to stay up all night to finish their assignments, study for tests, and anything really that has to do with school.

With sleeping pods, it will change many peoples' lives for the better because they would not have the lack of sleep that they used to have. People do not understand how important sleep is until they get sick or faint or really any health related issue that is caused by a lack of sleep for many nights. Sleeping is hard to maintain for most teens and adults and this is due to the work or assignments or taking care of a child (or children).

Sleeping should be maintained and not underestimated. However, it is okay to stay up all night a couple of times if that person has to complete many tasks those days. As long as you make up the amount of sleep you lost,  your body will have the amount of energy it needs throughout the day.