Some people have mirrored internal organs, so this advice may be the ophosite for you. But also, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, sleep however’s comfiest for you and lets you get the best sleep you can
Sure, round figures, lets call it 800K. And I bet the vast majority of them knows. It doesn’t take much of an examination for a doctor to determine location of heart and liver.
In fact many of them don’t, since the body is mostly symmetrical and apart from cutting them open or doing an MRI, you can’t really tell (which isn’t a big deal in most cases, because most medical procedures work regardless of this condition). Also, the heart is located almost in the middle, so there is not much difference.
Listening to the chest with a stethoscope, or your ear will tell the location of the heart. Percussing over the liver, but not finding a solid structure e.g. liver, which sounds different than a hollow structure, e.g. lungs would also help in identifying unexpected organ locations. I’m curious how you came to know that many of them don’t know? Do you keep a register of people with this condition, but don’t tell them?
It is difficult to provide a valid estimation of real frequency. There are only a few own observations in the literature and a lot of citations.
We performed a search in our radiologic database, looking for situs inversus as key words in the results. Between 2006 and 2020, 217,646 imaging examinations (ultrasound, CT and plain radiography) were performed at the Department of Transplantation and Surgery, Semmelweis University. Out of them, 21 cases were found, which represents a 1:10,000 frequency. This hospital-based prevalence rate best reflects Adams et al in 1937 (23:232,113), and Lin et al in 2000 (20:201,084) from Massachusetts, as data from own observations.26 This rate is similar as well to the population-based Baltimore-Washington Infant Study.12 SIT is slightly more frequent in males: 1.5:1.27
Because the condition seldom causes symptoms and is so rare, a person may not know they have it. And it may not be discovered until visiting a doctor for a different reason.
You may not develop any symptoms with situs inversus. Although your organs are reversed, they’re often still functional. So you wouldn’t notice any signs or complications.
Of course, trying to estimate how many people don’t know about a disease is a difficult task, but the general consensus is the condition is rare and often doesn’t produce any symptoms, as such there are definitely many people with the condition that haven’t even ever heard of it.
I’ve heard people talk about mirrored organs, is that something that would be immediately obvious? Like surely every person that has the condition would know about it.
Every time I’ve seen it in a hospital TV show or whatever, it always seems to be a surprise…like they didn’t find out at birth but the first time they need some invasive procedures.
I knew someone once who had this, she didn’t know until she got an x-ray as an adult. The doctor called in their colleagues to take a look at the scan because he’d never seen a real-life case before. She had her heart on the right side of her chest, was pretty interesting.
Certainly not. It affects ~10% of the population, at least in certain countries. Not everyone has the privelege of a robust, accessible healthcare system.
Well I guess the obvious one to me is feeling a heartbeat. It seems like that would come up even outside of the medical field (schools, “playing doctor”, heck doing the pledge of allegiance if you’re in the US)
Some people have mirrored internal organs, so this advice may be the ophosite for you. But also, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, sleep however’s comfiest for you and lets you get the best sleep you can
O.01% of the population, roughly 1 person in 10,000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situs_inversus
So about 800,000 people world wide?
Sure, round figures, lets call it 800K. And I bet the vast majority of them knows. It doesn’t take much of an examination for a doctor to determine location of heart and liver.
In fact many of them don’t, since the body is mostly symmetrical and apart from cutting them open or doing an MRI, you can’t really tell (which isn’t a big deal in most cases, because most medical procedures work regardless of this condition). Also, the heart is located almost in the middle, so there is not much difference.
Listening to the chest with a stethoscope, or your ear will tell the location of the heart. Percussing over the liver, but not finding a solid structure e.g. liver, which sounds different than a hollow structure, e.g. lungs would also help in identifying unexpected organ locations. I’m curious how you came to know that many of them don’t know? Do you keep a register of people with this condition, but don’t tell them?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8901252/
https://www.healthline.com/health/situs-inversus#symptoms
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23486-situs-inversus
Of course, trying to estimate how many people don’t know about a disease is a difficult task, but the general consensus is the condition is rare and often doesn’t produce any symptoms, as such there are definitely many people with the condition that haven’t even ever heard of it.
Cool, so sticking with the stipulated incidence, 800K is indeed a lot. Thanks for the linx!
I’ve heard people talk about mirrored organs, is that something that would be immediately obvious? Like surely every person that has the condition would know about it.
Every time I’ve seen it in a hospital TV show or whatever, it always seems to be a surprise…like they didn’t find out at birth but the first time they need some invasive procedures.
I knew someone once who had this, she didn’t know until she got an x-ray as an adult. The doctor called in their colleagues to take a look at the scan because he’d never seen a real-life case before. She had her heart on the right side of her chest, was pretty interesting.
I’d think so. You’d feel the urge to BM on the right rather than the left.
How would you know?
I mean if I put my hand over my left then right side of my chest, it’s pretty clear which side my heart is on
True, though isn’t the heart actually in the middle and it’s just asymmetric (with the big body-pumping side on the left)?
Certainly not. It affects ~10% of the population, at least in certain countries. Not everyone has the privelege of a robust, accessible healthcare system.
Well I guess the obvious one to me is feeling a heartbeat. It seems like that would come up even outside of the medical field (schools, “playing doctor”, heck doing the pledge of allegiance if you’re in the US)