DH wants us to go Left Handed. HELP.

[PetulaClarkMementoMori]

Not sure if this is the correct thread, but here goes....

My DH and I have been together for over 30 years and, as we're getting on we've both become more aware of and conscious to avoid what I suppose is called Cognitive decline.

I enjoy crosswords and reading, so I think I'm at least using my brain daily. DH has never bothered much with what he ( Mostly jokingly ) calls 'Book-Learning'. Anyway, all of a sudden he's become an 'expert'. He told me he'd read an article ( Although I suspect he means he's seen a two- minute video on Tok Tok ) which claims using your left hand for tasks that you would normally use your right hand for can stave off cognitive decline and now he thinks this is a miracle cure-all.
And, of course, he's become obsessed, everything has to be done left-handed, and if he see's me using my right hand, he booms 'Left!'. I can be chopping vegetables or opening a jar of coffee and I'll suddenly hear 'Left!' in my earhole. I've told him it's annoying, but he's as stubborn as a goat that's been struck by lightning.
Yesterday he spent over two hours repairing the lawnmower left-handed and somehow thinks it's turned him into bloody Einstein in a cloth cap.
I've tried suggesting some 'alternatives', as I read that learning a new language is effective. I've always fancied trying Portuguese, or even Hausa or Finnish. But I suspect trying to entice him with any of this will be met with the equivalent of 'Foreign Muck', and it will be the Moussaka situation all over again.
Honestly, I could scream. I know men get fixated, especially as they get older but this is honestly too much. I'm no Carol Vorderman so can someone explain whether there's any truth in his claims of Neural-plasticity in the brain?
I really need to get some answers because if I keep hearing 'Left!' I may well go hard right! In fact, the other day whilst driving he started rabbitting Left! Left! and it was only when I realised that he was pointing to the entrance to the Garden Centre, that I heeded what he was saying.
So, is there any truth to it? And is anyone else's aging husband going as mad as an Aardwark at an all you can eat Ant-Buffet?
I better go, I can hear him rumaging in the airing cupboard and if he see's me typing with two hands it'll be all she wrote. Literally!

Slight tangent - I just love how you write! You're so witty! I'm laughing so hard 🤣🤣🤣

"it will be the Moussaka situation all over again"

my favourite phrase of the day.

Seriously, MN needs to give us back the laugh reaction. We promise to use it responsibly.

I'm left handed-yay!

yeah, he also gave himself tapeworms...... I am not convinced of his authortiy as a clinician.

then you are supposed to use your right hand.

Having had a wonky arm I took turned left handed for about six months.
Brushing teeth is fun.
I can write messily left handed,.not that much worse than my right handed writing though.

First comment nails it as always 😂

Doing anything that’s out of the norm will challenge the synapses in the brain and light up new neural pathways. So using the left hand will be helpful but so will sitting in a different chair, getting out the other side of the bed, taking a new route in the car - try not to kill him…..

Brilliant! Thank you!

Please tell us about the Moussaka situation. I'm invested now.

Next time husband goes for a pee, shout thru bathroom door “I hope you’re using your left hand to hold it?” (Take the piss out of him.)

Or if he goes to sit for a while, ask him if he used his left hand for wipes?

There’s a very lengthy thread, and a moussaka story written by AI.

It bemuses me, how people tick.

Wanders off shaking head.

Oh, you're bringing the niceness of that thread to this one? Well done you.

Well, how would you characterise that thread. ‘The OP told a rip-roaringly funny tale of Bob, the bouzouki and the moussaka and everyone fell around in the aisles laughing and nominating it for Classics’?

I’d tell him being single is also bad for cognitive decline.

The concept of fun goes straight over the heads of some. 🤦‍♀️

The op shared an anecdote as many had repeatedly asked her to, only to be torn to shreds by vicious bullies telling her she can't write and isn't funny.

That's how I'd characterise it.

Take your unpleasantness elsewhere, please, and stop putting people down.

Sweetie, no one made you president of the sandpit.

Touched a nerve, I see

This is a good one, it explains how forcing a change of handedness is bad and stressful for your brain:
www.lefthander-consulting.org/english/information/problem/

I saw a documentary made by Chris Hemsworth saying that learning to play the drums was excellent for staving off decline and you use a lot of functions all in one go. I am
up for it but the long suffering OH is not keen on turning the garage into a soundproofed room

There is some truth to this- it’s re routing neuro plasticity and pathways- but just brushing your teeth left handed, or whatever your non dominant hand is, is enough to start with. Of course, I’d be slapping anyone who shouted in my ear with whatever hand was available and neuro pathway building be damned

If he is amenable to actual evidence from actual neuroscientists who have actually studied this, show him this page. https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/thinking-and-awareness/2019/does-using-your-non-dominant-hand-make-you-smarter-080919

If not, get him in the balls with your right knee and see if he still wants the left afterwards...