Dear LPG,

Isn’t it funny how we always seem to do things with the same hand?  Many of us hold our eating cutlery the same way and write with the same hand and it would be wrong if we didn’t.  (Can you remember the stigma attached to writing with the wrong hand before the 1960s?)  I always try to keep my keys in the pocket on the same side of my coat so that I know exactly where to search when I get to the front door.  If it is raining I nearly always use my right hand to carry my umbrella, perhaps because, as a right-handed person, I can fight the wind and control the thing better that way.  I don’t have one yet but I suspect that the side one uses one’s walking stick on depends on which leg it is supporting, and for years I have carried my relatively heavy handbag over my left shoulder.   It feels wrong on the right.

It is a bit late for me now, but I have just found some real evidence that points to the disadvantages of our one sided habits.  The habit of always carrying a bag on one side stores up problems for many of us ladies in later life; back ache and bad posture being the most evident.  Our bag-carrying habits may have already taken their toll on us but we need to tell our younger friends, daughters and nieces with the same habits to minimise the effects on them.

DS, Bromley

LPG took a look at the internet and found some related information please click here to access it