Do you have lots of whorls on your fingerprints?

You might be at risk of High Blood Pressure

The first person to solve a crime with fingerprints was a Scottish* doctor working in Japan, Henry Faulds. He matched the fingerprints found on a cup at a robbery in Tokyo with those of a servant, and described this feat in a letter to the prestigious science journal, Nature, in 1880. 

Now, Scientists have used fingerprints to solve medical mysteries. One study in India involved some 150 adult males, 90 of whom had duodenal ulcers. It found that there was a slight tendency for people with whorls to have more duodenal ulcers. Another study looking at American Japanese in Hawaii showed that if men had more whorls on their fingers, they were more likely to have a heart attack.

But it was a study by Professor David Barker, head of the Medical Research Council's Environmental Epidemiology Unit at Southampton General Hospital, which found that whorled fingerprints were associated with high blood pressure in adults.

He was examining high blood pressure, and was checking up records of various maternity units. He noticed that if babies had been born very thin, they were more likely to have whorls on their fingertips and to have high blood pressure when they became adults.

Now he and his team are not exactly sure what's going on, but it is well known that fingerprints are already laid down by the 19th week of gestation in the womb. And it's also known that if the foetus has flattened finger pads, it's more likely to have the simpler arch pattern or the slightly more complicated loop pattern.

But on the other hand, if the foetus had swollen finger pads, it's more likely to have a complex whorl pattern of ridges. But why would a baby who was going to be born thin, have fat finger pads?

One possible theory to explain this is that a fetus which is in distress might have a higher blood pressure, and this higher blood pressure and higher blood flow could show itself as increased swelling in the fingertips. But they're really not sure why there is a link between whorls and high blood pressure - but they do know the link is there.

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So what about wearing a bra?  

This is the sort of science your editors at www.mybodylanguage.co.uk really like. Good old Intuitive Quirky Inquizitiveness. But some studies can be misleading, even bizarre, until you look at the reasoning, then you get that IQI moment. Well, maybe it's not so daft after all. Keep this one close to your chest. 

Several websites claim that breast cancer is the result of wearing a bra. 

The main reason why bras are bad for breast health is because they restrict the lymph flow in your breasts.  There are numerous lymph pathways and lymph nodes in the armpits, under the breasts, and in between the breasts.  Normally the lymph fluid washes out waste materials and other toxins away from the breasts, but bras (and especially push-up bras) inhibit this action, so toxins can start to accumulate in the breast, and that can help cancer to develop.  

Bra wearing may also be connected to cancer in other ways.  Wearing bras slightly increases the temperature of the breast tissue, and women who wear bras have higher levels of the hormone prolactin.  Both of these may influence breast cancer formation.

Medical researcher Sydney Singer noticed that the Maoris of New Zealand integrated into white culture have the same rate of breast cancer, while the marginalized aboriginals of Australia have practically no breast cancer. The same was true for "Westernized" Japanese, Fijians and other bra-converted cultures.

In the early 1990s Singers studied 4,500 women in 5 cities across the U.S. about their habits in purchasing and wearing bras.   Though his study did not take into account other lifestyle factors, the results are too striking to be denied:

So the difference between 24 hour wearing and not at all was 125-fold!

The lymphatic system in the breast only develops fully during pregnancy and breastfeeding, so women who wear bras everyday and postpone having children, and those who do not breastfeed, could be at higher risk of breast cancer

Find out about Fingerprints (and brassieres). 

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