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Covid/Coronavirus and diabetes - the numbers
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<blockquote data-quote="Lupf" data-source="post: 2267192" data-attributes="member: 518059"><p>Thanks to [USER=310899]@Bill_St[/USER] for this challenge. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> How do I explain the 2D/4D ratio to non scientists?</p><p></p><p>Well if I come across a new term and want to learn what it is about, I go to Wikipedia. And in this case it contains actually very useful info and all you probably need to know, see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio</a>. Here is the Wikipedia definition: "The <strong>digit ratio</strong> is the ratio of the lengths of different <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger" target="_blank">digits</a> or fingers. The 2D:4D ratio is the most studied digit ratio and is calculated by dividing the length of the index finger of a given hand by the length of the ring finger of the same hand."</p><p></p><p>But why would one measure this ratio? It turns out that the 2D:4D ratio is affected by the exposure to testosterone while humans develop in the uterus of their mother. Crudely speaking the higher the levels of prenatal testosterone the lower will be the 2D:4D ratio. Males have higher levels of testosteron already before birth and therefore a smaller 2D:4D ratio than females. Correlations have been observed between this ratio and many physical, psychological and personality traits of humans. Wikipedia lists a table with lots of results in the section "Correlation with traits". You probably already know that increase levels of testosteron correlates with aggression and indeed "Finger length ratio (2D:4D) correlates with physical agression in men." as reported in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051104001048?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051104001048?via=ihub</a>. Another example is women athletes. "The highest achieved level of participation in any sport was significantly negatively associated with lower 2D:4D ratio", and is reported in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577466/" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577466/</a>. You can find many other examples in this list, including the answer to the question of [USER=223921]@JohnEGreen[/USER].</p><p></p><p>And now you can understand why this could be relevant to Covid-19. We would like to understand why some people have no symptoms when infected while others fall severely ill and about 1% die. The paper quoted by [USER=310899]@Bill_St[/USER] studies the correlation between case fatality rates - the rate of a group dying from Covid-19 - versus the 2D:4D ratio. And they find for males that the higher the 2D:4D ratio the higher is also the case fatality rate. Hence the conclusion of the paper is that "Low prenatal testosterone may be a risk factor for COVID-19 in males."</p><p></p><p>I hope this helps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lupf, post: 2267192, member: 518059"] Thanks to [USER=310899]@Bill_St[/USER] for this challenge. ;) How do I explain the 2D/4D ratio to non scientists? Well if I come across a new term and want to learn what it is about, I go to Wikipedia. And in this case it contains actually very useful info and all you probably need to know, see [URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio[/URL]. Here is the Wikipedia definition: "The [B]digit ratio[/B] is the ratio of the lengths of different [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger']digits[/URL] or fingers. The 2D:4D ratio is the most studied digit ratio and is calculated by dividing the length of the index finger of a given hand by the length of the ring finger of the same hand." But why would one measure this ratio? It turns out that the 2D:4D ratio is affected by the exposure to testosterone while humans develop in the uterus of their mother. Crudely speaking the higher the levels of prenatal testosterone the lower will be the 2D:4D ratio. Males have higher levels of testosteron already before birth and therefore a smaller 2D:4D ratio than females. Correlations have been observed between this ratio and many physical, psychological and personality traits of humans. Wikipedia lists a table with lots of results in the section "Correlation with traits". You probably already know that increase levels of testosteron correlates with aggression and indeed "Finger length ratio (2D:4D) correlates with physical agression in men." as reported in [URL='https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051104001048?via%3Dihub']https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051104001048?via=ihub[/URL]. Another example is women athletes. "The highest achieved level of participation in any sport was significantly negatively associated with lower 2D:4D ratio", and is reported in [URL]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577466/[/URL]. You can find many other examples in this list, including the answer to the question of [USER=223921]@JohnEGreen[/USER]. And now you can understand why this could be relevant to Covid-19. We would like to understand why some people have no symptoms when infected while others fall severely ill and about 1% die. The paper quoted by [USER=310899]@Bill_St[/USER] studies the correlation between case fatality rates - the rate of a group dying from Covid-19 - versus the 2D:4D ratio. And they find for males that the higher the 2D:4D ratio the higher is also the case fatality rate. Hence the conclusion of the paper is that "Low prenatal testosterone may be a risk factor for COVID-19 in males." I hope this helps. [/QUOTE]
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