Squeezing a Hand Can Show How Long You Might Live
Association of Grip Strength With Risk of All-Cause Mortality, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancer in Community-Dwelling Populations: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Grip strength is not linked to cancer risk, despite being strongly tied to death and heart disease.
Most assume muscle strength reflects general resilience — so it's counterintuitive that cancer risk remains unchanged regardless of grip strength.
Practical Takeaways
Use a handgrip dynamometer (or even a digital scale trick) to monitor grip strength annually — a drop of 5kg+ may signal increased heart disease or mortality risk.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Grip strength is not linked to cancer risk, despite being strongly tied to death and heart disease.
Most assume muscle strength reflects general resilience — so it's counterintuitive that cancer risk remains unchanged regardless of grip strength.
Practical Takeaways
Use a handgrip dynamometer (or even a digital scale trick) to monitor grip strength annually — a drop of 5kg+ may signal increased heart disease or mortality risk.
Publication
Journal
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
Year
2017
Authors
Yili Wu, Weijing Wang, Tianwei Liu, Dongfeng Zhang
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Claims (6)
The stronger your hand grip, the lower your chance of dying early — even small increases in grip strength are linked to better survival in people with weak bones.
Even when you remove people who already had heart disease or cancer, weak grip still predicts higher risk of dying or having heart problems — so it’s not just because they’re already sick.
The weaker your hand grip, the higher your risk of dying or having a heart problem — and the weaker it gets, the higher the risk goes up steadily.
People who can't squeeze as hard with their hands are more likely to die sooner or have heart problems, even if they don't have heart disease or cancer yet.
As your hand grip gets weaker — up to about 56 kg — your risk of dying or having heart problems goes up in a straight line, with no sudden jumps or plateaus.