Doctors baffled by Indian village of over 200 sets of twins (Yahoo! News)

kamuikurou · Aug 5, 2009

Pretty interesting stuff.

Doctors baffled by Indian village of over 200 sets of twins
By Arko Datta â€“ Tue Aug 4, 11:56 pm ET

KODINJI, India (Reuters Life!) â€“ Walk around Kodinji village and you'll think that you have double vision.
The village is home to as many as 230 sets of twins. Nobody knows why there are so many twins in the village of 15,000 people, although one local doctor suspects it might be due to the water.

In fact with about 35-45 twins per live birth, this village in North Kerala, India, has four times more twins than normal. Not surprisingly, the village has been dubbed "the twin village."
The latest official estimates by the Kodinji's Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), which conducted door-to-door surveys at the start of the year, found that there were 204 sets of twins.

Based on births since the survey was conducted, there are probably now around 230 sets of twins in the village, locals said. That number is set to rise as there are five women pregnant with twins.
"It's an amazing phenomenon to see a medical marvel occurring in such a localized place where the people are not exposed to any kinds of harmful drugs or harmful chemicals. It's a virgin village," said Dr Sribiju, a researcher.

Pathummakutty and Kunhipathutty, 65, are the oldest surviving twins in the village. The youngest are Rifa Ayesha and Ritha Ayesha, born on June 10. Their proud parents already see a slight difference between them as one lies fast asleep, while the other kicks away with a mischievous grin on her face.
Being a twin is not always easy. Pathummakutty, who like many in the village have a single name, recalls how her family struggled financially when she was a child. But she also remember good times such as laughter after yet another mix up with her twin sister.

It is not uncommon to run into an identical twin while walking down the hilly roads of Kodinji and there are many tales of teachers getting mixed up between twin students.
At the local school, 15-year-old Salmabi said teachers often confused her for her twin sister and she was once reprimanded for something that her twin did.
"It happens all the time," the students pipe in a chorus.
Scientists are still trying to uncover the mystery of why there are so many twins in the village.
"Based on scientific facts, we feel something in the environment is causing this. It could be something in the water," said a local doctor, M.K. Sribiju.

"All the world over the cause of twins is mainly because of drugs. Everywhere in the Western world, people are exposed to fertility drugs, their food habits, they consume more dairy products. Everywhere the age of marriage is increasing. There are late marriages predisposed to occurrence of twins," he said.
However in Kodinji, most marriages are between people aged 18 to 20 years old.
"All the factors leading to the occurrence of twinning world wide, we cannot see it here. There is something unknown that is causing this phenomenon," he said.
The locals also believe it is to do with the water. Kodinji is surrounded by water in the fields and during the monsoon season it becomes inaccessible from heavy rains.

As scientists try to find the reason for the large numbers of twins in the village, the parents are busy trying to tell their children apart. It doesn't help that many of the twins have similar names and often wear similar clothes.
While parents light-heartedly point out that their twins even seem to fall sick together, not all traits are shared. Identical twins Anu and Abhi prefer different film stars and one of the boys likes to play cricket, while the other prefers kicking a soccer ball.
With all the attention being showered on the twins of Kodinji, Ajmer, a 12-year-old school boy, feels like the odd one out in a village where being a twin is trendy.

via Yahoo! News.
Click to expand...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090805/lf_nm_life/us_india_twins

What do you think? Are there anyone came from India here?

koyuchan · Aug 5, 2009

hmm.. I'm not but
I love to looking at twins. They're cute.Their behaviour are same, even their clothes.
I guess it's hard to have twins for your kids?

Loonylion · Aug 5, 2009

koyuchan said:

hmm.. I'm not but
I love to looking at twins. They're cute.Their behaviour are same, even their clothes.
Click to expand...

Twins are not necessarily identical. If two eggs get fertilised during conception, and both eggs foetuses survive, the result is non-identical twins. If one egg gets fertilised and then splits at the embryo stage, the result is identical twins.

koyuchan · Aug 5, 2009

Loonylion said:

If one egg gets fertilised and then splits at the embryo stage, the result is identical twins.
Click to expand...

How to do that?

Blade5406 · Aug 5, 2009

koyuchan said:

How to do that?
Click to expand...

You learn it at school, biology, i think?

kukuru · Aug 5, 2009

koyuchan said:

How to do that?
Click to expand...

Its just some abnormality
sometimes the embryo split and most of the time, it doesn't

koyuchan · Aug 5, 2009

I know the biology thing but my school didn't teach until the detail.
And I take the Social,Geography,Economy class, not the Physics,Chemistry,and Biology class..:O

crazytuna · Aug 5, 2009

ohh damn I am so going to live there
I want twins

forte_amirul · Aug 5, 2009

crazytuna said:

ohh damn I am so going to live there
I want twins
Click to expand...

*gasp*Good to know tuna is active,anyway,at my school there's two twin.One twin bullies any kid that he can pick on.Still,a twin can be hyper-active.

kamuikurou · Aug 5, 2009

My school has a twin too and it's hard to remember the slight difference between the twins, unless you know them well.

Now there's 200+ of them? The people there must have a server brain to remember all of them.

forte_amirul · Aug 5, 2009

The twins in my school stood out.They're active in sports.

crazytuna · Aug 5, 2009

actually if you know them well, twins are easy to differentiate

cjdogger · Aug 6, 2009

The worst thing about hot twins is picking one if you get them interested

crazytuna · Aug 6, 2009

or you can choose randomly, and if you don't like one, you can go for the other

cjdogger · Aug 6, 2009

But what if you hurt their feelings?

koyuchan · Aug 10, 2009

If one hurt, the other one must be get hurt too
maybe

1prinnydood · Aug 11, 2009

I had a relationship with an identical twin once, she was lovely and wholesome. Her sister was also lovely, but with a dark soul. They looked very alike but acted very differently. I ended up having a relationship with both of them. That was a bad idea.

kamuikurou · Aug 11, 2009

1prinnydood said:

I had a relationship with an identical twin once, she was lovely and wholesome. Her sister was also lovely, but with a dark soul. They looked very alike but acted very differently. I ended up having a relationship with both of them. That was a bad idea.
Click to expand...

It sounds like a game of some sort. Is one of them had the name of...

*SPOILERS*

Hawthorne?

tehuber1337 · Aug 11, 2009

/spoilers

kamuikurou · Aug 11, 2009

Oh, I'll edit my post...

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