• Question: can one side of your body be slighty bigger than the other side ?

    Asked by pinkyypinkssz to Keith, Emma on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 23 Jun 2010:


      Yes, although this tends to happen for separate body parts. For example, it is possible for one leg (or arm) to be shorter than another – this often happen when the growth plates (where the new bone grows) of a long bone in your limbs is damaged during childhood. These growth plates are near the joints, and most bone breaks heal without this long-term consequence of shortening. Sometimes small differences exist without any evidence of damage.

      Its also very common for breasts to be of different sizes, and testes generally hang at different heights in the scrotum (so, both genders are prone to being a little asymmetric!).

      The left and right sides of our brain also aren’t quite symmetric, probably because some brain functions (like shpeach, and shpelling) fill up more space (and are more important) on one side of the brain than the other.

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