The size of the fingers of the hand, linked to hormone levels before birth, could be an indicator of the severity of the infection
- In men, the ring finger is the longest, while in women it is the index finger.
- This finding prompted researchers to study the link between finger size and the fact that severe Covid most often have men
Are you at risk of developing a severe form of Covid-19? Even if this question is less worrying today because the number of infections remains measured after having experienced a very clear decline and the combination of vaccination/Omicron has made the mild forms of the disease very prevalent, perhaps you will be interested- Does it all the same if you are told that it depends… on the length of the fingers of your hands!
Small flashback: from the start of the pandemic, it appeared that the rate of infected patients requiring hospital care depended on age, the presence of comorbidities and… gender, with men often presenting with more severe disease. So, based on this last observation, scientists have looked into the possible link between sex hormones and the severity of Covid-19 cases. And they discovered that there was a link, but it could go either way: one hypothesis involves high levels of testosterone (the male hormone) in severe cases, another associated with low levels of this hormone in older men with a poor prognosis.
A link between finger length and severity of symptoms
So, to see it more clearly and as we also know that a long ring finger is a marker of higher testosterone levels before birth while a long index mark, him, a higher level of estrogen (l female hormone), it was posited that men would have longer ring fingers while in women, the index finger would be the longest finger on the hand. Researchers have therefore studied the relationship between finger length and the severity of Covid symptoms. And their work which was published in the journal Scientific Reports indicate as the main marker of a risk of hospitalization following an infection by the coronavirus the…little finger! When it runs in a man, ie “feminized” compared to the other fingers, the risk is major! And even more important in patients whose finger length varies between right and left hand…
Why severe forms mainly affect older men
Explanation: In the womb and at puberty, low testosterone levels in men and high estrogen levels are stressors leading to developmental disturbances. So that weaken the body which is thus less resistant to infection. And as the testosterone level decreases with age, this fragility increases. Hence the fact that the group of older men is most at risk of severe forms of Covid.
As for the question “why do some people experience this hormonal imbalance”, the answer is addressed in the report of this study: previous work by the author, Prof. John Manning, has shown that low-income mothers can feminize their child in the womb by adjusting their hormones while high-income mothers masculinize their offspring. But all these elements do not go so far as to provide a sufficient explanation for another observation made on the profile of the victims of the pandemic: why the serious forms also affected the poorest?
.