The interesting world of twins

When twin brothers William Wambua and Zacchaeus Katuti Kavoi married twin sisters Linet Mbatha and Maureen Ndunge Kimetu recently, the unique ceremony was the talk of the nation for at least a week.

Their nuptials on a sunny Sunday morning on December 7 last year were not just a celebration and public declaration of love, but also a stylish examination of the world or twins.

The two sets of identical twins, just like many others around the world, were not just defined by the striking similarity in their DNA strands and looks, but also that between their mannerisms, preferences and choices.

As the Kavoi twins grew up, they noticed something interesting between themselves; they both wanted to marry twin sisters.

Their desires began to materialise when, during a casual stroll at a playground in Machakos town, they met the Kimetus, with whom they “immediately fell in love”.

Zaccheus, who is the first of the set to see the world, developed an instant liking for Linet, also the first born of the Kimetus, during their first meeting, while his brother was head over heels with Maureen.

Here, the interesting world of other identical twins:

Interesting facts about twins 

• One in 250 pregnancies results in identical twins

• 22 per cent of twins are left-handed (compared to 10 per cent for single babies)

• Identical twins share the same DNA but have different fingerprints.

• The average twin pregnancy lasts only 37 weeks, while the average single pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.

• Scientists believe that there may be a genetic linkage to having fraternal twins, not identical, but only on the mother’s side.

• Because identical twins developed from the same split egg and were fertilised by the same sperm, they share exact matches of their DNA.

• If the mother herself is a fraternal twin, she is five times more likely to have twins

• Twins have been known to develop their own dialect, or language. This is known as “cryptophasia”, and only they can understand what is being said.

• The term “twin” derives from the ancient German word “twine” meaning “two together”.

 There’s no hereditary trait that influences a predisposition to having identical twins. Identical twins do not run in families.

Although there are families with a high incidence of identical twins, it is due to chance, coincidence or plain good luck.

Inseparable

Dennis Mwalimu and Davies Munyua Manyara, 25, say they are inseparable, and that if you want to face their fury, just hurt one of them. “We are so close to each other that we never leave each other’s side, we can protect each other to death, if you want to hurt me then hurt my brother,” says Dennis. “We run a business together, go out together and even live in the same house,” adds Davies. 

Both have studied journalism and mass communication and also share a love for movies, bird watching, swimming and travelling. They also scored similar marks in basically all their examinations.

Dennis, who is the more outgoing of the two, is older than Davies by four minutes. The two are so much in sync that they finish each other’s sentences, like they have a “twin telepathy” thing.

Dating, however, has been very tricky for the two young men as, they say, potential partners always shy off thinking the two are playing tricks on them.

The young men operate different bank accounts but their signatures, like their looks, are identical, and so they often access each other’s accounts without the tellers having the slightest idea.

“Our identity cards, driving licenses and bank details are all the same,” says Dennis. “I can use my brother’s driving license easily. In fact mine has expired and I have not renewed it for a long time.”

Their greatest fear is separation and they are not sure how they would handle being away from each other.

Exciting journey full or surprises

For Anabelle Monthe and Faith Kamene Muema, 25, life as identical twins has been an exciting journey full of surprises. Both are actresses and have landed numerous acting roles courtesy of their twinism.

The Muemas, as they are popularly referred to by their friends, also share similar hobbies, love sports and are volunteers in two organisations dealing with people living with disabilities and HIV/Aids.

“Our bond is so strong that nothing can separate us, even in school we used to help share each other’s punishments,” says Anabelle.

They also scored similar grades in all their examinations despite being in separate examination rooms at high school before proceeding to Kenya Methodist University, from where they graduated last year.

The pair studied business administration, with Faith majoring in procurement and management and Anabelle opting for human resource management.

They say that when they are apart and one of them is in trouble, the other twin also becomes uncomfortable and will seek to call the other to check her out.

“When one of us falls sick, the other one automatically becomes unwell, like today I’m having a cold and my sister has already developed one,” says Faith.

Anabelle, the older of the pair by just one minute, says the rest of their siblings hardly understand them.

“Even though, just like any other siblings, we often disagree with each other, as soon as the fight is over, we are the best of friends, leaving our siblings confused,” says Anabelle.

Amazingly, their mother can tell them apart just by hearing their voices. “Even if we’re in a room and she is in the next and she calls my sister and I happen to respond, she will protest,” says Faith

Anabelle describes herself as laid back but a risk taker who wants to venture into entrepreneurship, especially in the energy sector, while Faith says she is outgoing and has interest in investments, procurement and flying. She is currently a student at the Pilot Training Centre at Wilson Airport, Nairobi.

Flourishing music career

Moses Safari and Paul Muthengi Mutua say that were it not for their twinism, their music career would not have flourished like it has.

The two soft-spoken musicians, who are the chairmen of The Identical Family, an organisation that brings together at least 60 sets of twins in the country, say they always fought to wear similar clothes when growing up.

They also used to write assignments for each other, and Moses once attended an interview on behalf of his brother and no one in the panel knew about it!

The twins, who are second-borns in a family of eight and were born 12 hours apart (Paul came out first), say founding The Identical Family together with the Manyaras and Muemas has given them a sense of belonging and provided them with a networking platform.

Famous twins

Peter and Paul Okoye, the P-Square music group duo from Nigeria, are well known in Kenya courtesy of their songs.

The oldest twins ever documented were Eli Shadrack and John Meshak Phipps from USA.

They were born on February 14, 1803 in Affington, Virginia. While Eli died on February 23, 1911 at the age of 108 years, his brother John died on December 10, 1916 at the age of 113.

Remember the successful pop/disco outfit the Bee Gees? Well, part of the team were twin brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb, who formed the band with their older brother, Barry.

The Gibb twins were born in 1949 on the Isle of Ma but are now deceased. Maurice, the younger by 35 minutes, died in January, 2003 following complications during an intestinal surgery.

Robin died in May, 2012, after a long battle with cancer.

Elvis Presley, the deceased American “King of Rock and Roll”, had a twin brother, Jesse Garon, who died at birth.

The famous biblical twins Jacob and Esau were the sons of Isaac and Rebekah and the grandsons of Abraham.

Esau sold his birthright to his younger twin and also threatened to kill him. Jacobs’s 12 sons formed the 12 tribes of Israel. Their story is well documented in Genesis 25:19-34.

The world of soccer is also not one to be left behind and has won a “trophy” of having twins in Brazilian defenders Fabio Pereira da Silva (born July 9, 1990) and his brother Rafael.

The twins play for Manchester United in the English Premier League. They signed with the English side in 2007.

How twins are formed

The correct term for identical twinning is monozygotic as such twins form from a single (mono) fertilised egg (zygote).

The zygote splits into two parts after conception, resulting in the development of two individual embryos.

Because the two embryos are the result of a single egg/sperm combination, they have the same genetic origins. They have the same DNA and are of same sex.

Dizygotic twins (often referred to as fraternal), are the result of two eggs fertilised by two separate sperm.

Although most women only release a single egg in an ovulation cycle, but sometimes multiples eggs are released. Dizygotic twins share about 50 per cent of their genetic traits, the same as any other siblings born at different times, and are of different sexes.

The causes of monozygotic twinning are generally unknown and unidentified. No one really knows why an egg splits; technically it’s a malfunction of the normal development process.

There’s no hereditary trait that influences a predisposition to having identical twins, so they do not run in families.

Although there are families with a high incidence of identical twins, it is due to chance, coincidence or plain good luck.

Birth rate statistics for identical twinning have remained stable over the years, despite the overall increase in twins and multiples since the late 1980s. The odds of having identical twins are about 3 in 1,000, whereas the birthrate for all twins is about 32.2 in 1,000.

Identical twinning is not generally influenced by fertility-enhancing treatments like drugs or in-vitro fertilisation, although monozygotic twins have been produced in pregnancies that were the result of such treatments.

Birth rates for identical twins are consistent across populations and are the same regardless of race, geography or maternal age.

Twins know each other so intimately that they can often predict how their twin will speak or behave. This phenomenon can also be observed between two non-twin people in a close relationship, such as a husband and wife who have been married for many years.

Many twins — whether due to nature or nurture — simply have the same instincts, tendencies or preferences, explaining why they do eerily similar things simultaneously.

Despite the lack of scientific proof, these personal experiences cannot be denied.

It is generally accepted that such incidents are signs of a deep emotional connection, which produces an intense sense of empathy, strong enough to generate physical sensations, such as feeling pain when a co-twin is hurting

The strange world of doubles

1. Mothers of twins live longer: Twins have been given a lot of labels, from an unwanted burden to “a sign of their father’s superior virility,” says The Economist. But a study by the University of Utah in the US shows that twins “have more to do with their mother’s sturdy constitution than their father’s sexual power”.

Looking at the birth records for 59,000 women between 1800 and 1970, researchers found that women who give birth to twins lived longer, had healthier kids, and “appeared to be healthier” themselves. That’s probably because sturdier women have twins, not because having twins is good for you, the study notes.

2. But they get divorced more often: It seems that twins can help unravel a marriage, say Dr Anupam Jena and his colleagues at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital.

When a couple’s only children are twins, parents are only about one per cent more likely to get divorced than parents of singletons.

But add in more kids (or less income), and the risk of divorce shoots up. The reason is probably the added stress, both financial and emotional.

3. Twin foetuses start playing at 14 weeks: Examining 3D ultrasound images of five pairs of in-utero twins, a team at the University of Padova, Italy, found that foetuses started deliberately interacting at 14 weeks, reaching out and touching each other through the uterine wall.

By 18 weeks, they spent more time stroking each other than themselves, and were equally careful when touching their co-twin’s sensitive eye areas.

The results are “astonishing,” says Jean-Philippe Rivière at Doctissimo. At 14 weeks, “they were already socialising with their sibling in the womb”.

4. If you separate identical twins, they still end up similar:  After decades of twin research, George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan found the “most prominent conclusion” to be that “practically everything — health, intelligence, happiness, success, personality, values, interests — is partly genetic”.

We may latch on to the parenting-centric ideas of “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua, says Helen Rumbelow in The Australian. But the dozens of rigorous studies on separated-at-birth twins is much more persuasive than “Chua’s sample of one”.

As adults, even separated twins are “very similar on almost every count”.

5. But identical twins can get sick very differently: In 1983, two identical twin infant boys were given a blood transfusion contaminated by HIV; decades later, one has an almost-normal immune system while the other is faring much worse. Brigham Young University researchers recently tried to explain the different reactions.

What they found is that once identical twins leave the womb and are “exposed to different pathogens, bacteria, and microbes,” their immune systems are not identical at all.

6. Twin capital of the world: The small South American town of Cândido Godói may just be the twin capital of the world. From 1959 to 2008, a whopping eight per cent of births in São Pedro (one of the town’s villages), resulted in twins — compared to less than one per cent throughout the rest of the country. What’s the reason behind so many doubles? For years, citizens believed there must have been something in the water, according to an article in The New York Times. But recent research by a team of Brazilian geneticists put that rumour to rest. After conducting a series of DNA tests, the researchers found that a hyper-ovulation gene that makes women more susceptible to conceiving twins runs rampant in the town, likely due to high levels of inbreeding. But Cândido Godói is not the only place to get noticed for its high twin population: In 2010, Baker High School in New York made headlines when 12 sets of twins graduated at the same time, breaking a Guinness World Record.

7. Identical twins are not exactly identical: A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that environmental factors such as dietary habits and chemical exposures — also known as epigenetic effects — cause identical twins to grow dissimilar over time, according to a Live Science article.

For example, identical duos may start to look less alike over the years, they can have totally different personalities, and one may wind up with a disease like cancer while the other doesn’t (another study from Duke University found that when one identical twin in his late 70s has Alzheimer’s, the other only has it about 40 per cent of the time).

For the study, the researchers looked at 40 identical duos in Spain ranging in age from three to 74, surveying them on a number of different lifestyle factors, such as exercise and eating habits. Out of the participants, the older sets of twins were the least alike.

Source: twinningfortwins.wordpress.com and other Internet-based publications