What your handshake can reveal about your health – and when it could be alerting you to a medical emergency
HOW good is your handshake?
This isn’t just about getting your future boss to like you; your future health is also at stake.
“As you get older, a weakening handshake can suggest you’re at higher risk of various health complications,” says Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant to .
So, does your recent inability to hold on to the dog’s lead when he spots a squirrel mean doom?
Not necessarily, Dr Sarah tells Sun Health, but your hand strength can reflect your overall strength, fitness, and fine muscle control.
“And lower overall strength is often a marker for heart problems,” she explains.
Read more on grip strength
“Older people with weaker hand grip are at higher risk of breaking a bone due to a fall and/or osteoporosis [thinning of the bones].
“It might even predict your risk of dementia in the future.”
How is hand strength measured?
For decades, medical experts have been using grip strength to measure people’s health.
They do this using a dynamometer - a device you hold in your palm and squeeze as hard as you can with your fingers. (You can buy one for around £30 from Amazon).
Most read in Health
Your grip strength is the highest force reached in a single squeeze.
Strength varies depending on age, gender and ethnicity.
But average scores in a 2021 study were 35.2kg in men and 26.2kg in women.
Here, we look at what some scientists have uncovered about weak hand strength can unveil about your health:
Higher risk of heart attacks and strokes
Having a limp fish of a handshake has been linked to a greater risk of heart attack or stroke.
Scientists at Queen Mary University of London found those with poor grip strength had weaker hearts that were less able to pump blood around the body.
Weak hand grip strength was also associated with having enlarged and damaged hearts.
The study, which involved the scientists checking the grips of 5,000 people, also found better hand strength was linked to higher volumes and proportions of blood being pumped by the heart and healthier heart muscle.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, healthier hearts were associated with a lower risk of killer cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes.
Professor Steffen Petersen, who led the research from Queen Mary University of London, emphasises the importance of grip tests for identifying those at risk of heart disease.
“Hand grip strength is an inexpensive, reproducible and easy to implement measure, and could become an easy way of identifying people at high risk of heart disease and preventing major life-changing events, such as heart attacks,” he said.
However, don’t jump to conclusions about the state of your ticker if you find yourself struggling to open jars, said senior cardiac nurse Christopher Allen.
“It’s important to remember that this research does not mean you will have a heart attack if you find yourself with a limp handshake or struggling to open a jar,” he explained.
“If you are concerned about your heart health or your overall fitness, please speak to your GP."
Increased risk of dementia
Struggling to grip a steering wheel or turn a screwdriver has been linked to an increased risk of dementia in later life.
A study involving more than 190,000 dementia-free middle-aged men and women found those who had a weaker grip when young were more likely to have problems with thinking and memory when older, including the onset of dementia.
The authors, from the University of California, suggested weak hand grip reflected a general muscle loss in the body.
They wrote: “These findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that interventions designed to increase muscle strength, particularly among middle-aged adults, may hold promise for the maintenance of neurocognitive brain health.”
Around 944,000 Brits are currently living with dementia, and experts predict the numbers will exceed one million by the end of the decade.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of the condition and is thought to be caused by build-ups of proteins in the brain, including tau and amyloid.
There is currently no cure for the disease, although three promising drugs to slow down its progress are currently in trials.
Depression
A weak handshake has long been associated with nervousness, but it could be a sign of a more serious mental health condition, depression.
South Korean researchers found people with a weaker hand grip were up to three times more likely to suffer from undiagnosed depression.
Depression involves having a low mood or losing interest and enjoyment in things.
It affects an estimated 350million people worldwide, and the World Health Organisation predicts that by 2030, more people will be affected by depression than by any other health problem.
Doctors recorded over 51,000 participants’ grip scores and then got them to complete an assessment of their mental health.
This involved agreeing or disagreeing with statements such as "I am bothered by things that don’t usually worry me" and "I felt everything I did was an effort".
When researchers analysed the results, they discovered those with weaker handshakes were nearly three times more likely to agree with the statements strongly.
The reason for this phenomenon is not clear.
One theory is that having a softer grip can be a marker for poorer overall physical strength caused by the lack of physical activity - a typical hallmark of declining mental wellbeing.
An early warning sign of liver disease
A limp handshake or a weak grip is an early warning sign of a potentially fatal condition called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
The condition is believed to affect up to one in three adults in the UK.
NAFLD is a build-up of fat in the liver, usually triggered by an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle, rather than heavy boozing.
Left unchecked, it can - over several years - cause severe inflammation and scarring of the organ, which increases the risk of liver cancer and liver failure.
A study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at the livers and hand strength of almost 4,000 men and women, mostly in their 40s.
They found those with the weakest grip were almost twice as likely to have fat in their liver. And the weaker the grip, the higher the fat levels.
The Auckland team thinks fatty livers damage grip strength by causing low-level inflammation, weakening muscles and reducing their mass.
Increased risk of dying young
A feeble grip can indicate a shorter life expectancy.
A 2015 of almost 140,000 adults found reduced handgrip strength was closely linked to mortality, predicting risks for early death better than blood pressure, which is often considered one of the best indicators of life span.
“Grip strength is a simple but powerful predictor of future disability, morbidity, and mortality,” the authors of an accompanying concluded, its effects holding “not only in older people but also in middle-aged and young people.”
A separate study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that those who develop a weak hold in midlife have a 20 per cent higher risk of death from heart and respiratory diseases and cancer.
When to seek help
If you think you could have any of the conditions highlighted in the story, you must see your GP. A doctor can also test your grip strength.
You should seek emergency medical care if the weakness begins suddenly, occurs immediately after an injury, or is accompanied by stroke symptoms such as weakness on one side of the body, confusion, or difficulty talking or moving.
What your fingers can say about your health
Previously, Sun Health has looked into what the length of your fingers can reveal about your health.
One 2006 study found having a ring finger which is longer than the index finger is associated with better performance in a number of sports, specifically athletics, in men and women.
But it is also linked to an increased risk of risk of in women, another 2008 study revealed.
According to a study in the Asian Journal of Andrology, men whose ring fingers are longer, in comparison to their index fingers, tend to have bigger penises, according to South Korean research.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
They found the men who had a small gap between the length of their ring and index digits, like Simon Cowell or Justin Bieber, tended to have bigger penises.
Those with bigger differences, like Donald Trump, tended to be less well-endowed.