Can finger length be related to drinking alcohol? Surprising research
Finger length and alcoholism – these two things seem as far apart as the Earth and other galaxies. And yet, the latest research shows that there is a very specific correlation between them. What does it mean?
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Alcoholism is still a serious problem in Poland. According to this year’s report of the Polish Academy in Częstochowa, the number of our compatriots addicted to alcohol and drinking excessively ranges from 4 to 5 million. This may mean that there are approximately 12 million people living within the reach of the socially negative effects of alcoholism. Looking for various reasons for this phenomenon, scientists looked at… the length of our fingers. Where did this idea come from?
Hormones and finger length
At the beginning, it is worth emphasizing an important relationship. The ratio of the lengths of the index and ring fingers tells us something very interesting about the fetal stage of our lives. The difference between them indicates the early exposure of the baby growing in the mother’s womb to testosterone and estrogen. It was on the basis of this relationship that researchers from the Welsh University of Swansea and the Medical University of Lodz prepared their work. They conducted an analysis among students to assess the relationship between alcohol consumption and the prenatal action of sex hormones. Details are described in the American Journal of Human Biology.
The study included 258 participants. Much more than half, as many as 169 of them, are women. For this reason, differences in alcohol consumption levels between these groups were taken into account at the beginning – men consumed significantly more alcohol than women. Men also had a higher mortality rate related to its abuse. However, the study found another feature that has been linked to greater ease with alcohol addiction. This was a correlation between high alcohol consumption and the fact that the fourth (ring) finger is longer than the second (index) finger.. This relationship also suggests higher prenatal exposure to testosterone relative to estrogen. As expected by the researchers, this relationship was stronger in men than in women.
Alcohol consumption is a serious social and economic problem. That’s why it’s so important to understand why there are so many differences between people on this issue
– said prof. John Manning from the A-STEM (Applied Sports, Technology, Exercise and Medicine) research team at the University of Swansea, quoted by the website Naukawpolsce.pl
