Nothing wrong with using a slang term for "left-handed," but please, considering the already-overcharged political atmosphere, couldn't you have used a less loaded term than "lefty?" I can just picture a Salon reader of right-wing orientation skimming the headlines, not bothering to read the actual story, and calling up Rush et al. with the breaking news: "Hey guys, did you know that liberal women are more likely..."

Maybe it's not the HRT or even the old age that is softening the brain but decades of news flashes burning our synapses like wild fire.

See, this is the problem with hiring writers to do reporting. They much prefer writing to reporting.

I'll skip the fancy writing and just stick with reporting.

The "softening of the brain" in old age is usually due to a medical condition called Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is not known to be caused by decades of old news burning the synapses. Your brain makes this nasty stuff called beta amyloid plaque and it gums up your synapses and kills your brain cells.

If you want to learn about preventing Alzheimer's, then read on.

Researchers at Scripps Institute in La Jolla compared the two leading medications for Alzheimer's with the active ingredients in marijuana, and found the active ingredients in marijuana almost completely blocked the formation of beta amyloid plaques, whereas the two medications you can get legally that have been approved by the FDA only block less than a third of them.

So good luck using those FDA-approved meds when you get old!

Okay now on to the next subject -- osteoporosis:

Depending on which newspaper you trust, Reclast, the new injectable bone building drug, is either the best thing since penicillin or a risky proposition that could lead to stroke.

Wouldn't it be nice if they could develop a single drug that could combat both osteoporosis and Alzheimer's?

(Drum roll, please.)

TA DA -- apparently such a drug already exists. Guess what it is!!!

Scientists have also discovered that the active ingredients of marijuana are bone-building drugs. The active ingredients in marijuana suppress the action of the osteoclasts, the cells that destroy old bone cells, and promote the activity of osteoblasts, the cells that help create new bone cells.

This research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, so it's not some pothead fantasy. It's real medical research, going on right now.

Preventing osteoporosis is a job already performed by the body's own endocannabinoid system, using your own natural internal marijuana that is made by your own brain and your own immune system.

I think the problem with these Big Pharm bone-building drugs is they don't use the body's own natural pathway for suppressing osteoclasts and activating osteoblasts. Your body already knows how to tolerate cannabinoids, because your body makes cannabinoids of its own. I think that's why the side effects of marijuana are so minor compared with the major, terrible side effects these Big Pharm bone-building drugs are known to produce. Like necrosis of the jaw, for example.

I wonder whether estrogen plays some role in maintaining the endocannabinoid system. Perhaps it's the endocannabinoid system that goes bad when we get old, and it's the breakdown of the endocannabinoid system that causes Alzheimer's and osteoporosis in old people.

Maybe what aging women need is not horomone supplementation, but cannabinoid supplementation.

No one is more likely to die than anyone else. We all have a 100% probability of death.

I'm in my late 40s, and I remember struggles with my third-grade teacher, who thought I'd be much better off if I learned to use my right hand. People now in their 70s often had their hands slapped every time they tried to use their left hand. That's why no conclusions can be drawn from the fact that there are fewer elderly left-handers. The societal pressure against is enormous, and it shows up in the language: "left-handed complement", "gauche" (French for left), "sinister" (Latin for left), etc. In the old days, you had to be really determined if you wanted to be a left-hander.

There have long been claims that forcing a left-handed child to use his or her right hand is associated with stuttering, but the research seems inconclusive. Still, parents should know that there may be negative consequences if you don't accept your child's natural hand preference.

As a lifelong southpaw (no one tried to switch me, but boy did my teachers struggle trying to teach me penmanship), I appreciate the opposing viewpoint. Feels like my whole life someone's always trying to bring down us "sinisters". Just let us be. It's not like it's something we have any control over.

Bah. I do identify with this sentiment:

Maybe it's not the HRT or even the old age that is softening the brain but decades of news flashes burning our synapses like wildfire.

I'd only add that possibly it's not the news flashes themselves that make us nuts, but the whiplash induced by their contradictory advice.

Maybe we should avoid reading the headlines too.

Okay, this is one of those "I read this somewhere a while ago, don't expect references," posts. But I have read that there are basically two different kinds of left-handed people; those who, for some reason, had less development of one side of their brain, and those who, for some reason, had HYPER development of one side of their brain. In other words, you can be left-handed because your right-side control is worse than other people's, or you can be left-handed because your left-side control is better than other people's. Those in the first group probably got that way due to less than optimal conditions in the womb, which also predisposes them to other health problems; thus, left-handed people taken as a group have a shorter than average life span. People in the second group are not likely to have more health problems than anyone else, but of course, they can't easily be told from those in the first group.

My father was a lefty, Because of his age (born in 1906) he was forced to write with his left hand, but always ate with his left.

He lived to a ripe old age of 94 his mind fully intact.