{"id":478234,"date":"2026-06-05T20:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/478234\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T20:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:11:17","slug":"your-grip-strength-says-a-lot-about-how-long-you-might-live-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/478234\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Grip Strength Says a Lot About How Long You Might Live : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you follow wellness channels on social media, you might’ve come across the claim<\/a> that your grip strength \u2013 or how firmly you can squeeze something with your hands \u2013 can predict how long you will live.<\/p>\n

This sounds far-fetched. Yet the science supports such a connection.<\/p>\n

But as wellness influencers try to monetize this<\/a> link, what started as something based on scientific evidence starts to get stretched. Now some influencers claim just strengthening your grip strength can help you live longer.<\/p>\n

And it’s not just social media influencers.<\/p>\n

Mainstream media often follows some similar patterns, overlooking the complexity and nuance of the science<\/a> and misrepresenting what it means for individuals.<\/p>\n

What the science says: The evidence<\/a> consistently shows a person’s grip strength is a good indicator of their overall health and therefore can act as a proxy for how long they might live.<\/p>\n

\"DiagramAssociations of hand grip strength with health-related metrics. (Vaishya et al., J. Health Popul. Nutr., 2024<\/a>)<\/p>\n

However, grip strength isn’t a driver of longevity.<\/p>\n

The strength of your hands doesn’t make you healthier. It indicates how robust<\/a> the body is, from muscle and nerve function, to the health of your heart and veins, and how your body uses energy.<\/p>\n

A typical way researchers have investigated the relationship between grip strength, health and longevity is to measure participants’ handgrip strength by getting them to squeeze a handheld device called a dynamometer.<\/p>\n

Then they track participants over time, to see if they developed diseases and how old they were when they died.<\/p>\n

For example, a study<\/a> of around half a million British people aged 40\u201369 years found a 5kg lower grip strength was associated with an approximately 20% greater risk of dying during the follow-up period, which was up to ten years.<\/p>\n

The researchers also found muscle weakness, which they defined as having a grip strength of less than 26kg for men and 16kg for women, was associated with a higher overall risk of death as well as a higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke), respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a number of cancers.<\/p>\n

The link is stronger for older people.<\/p>\n

While the relationship between grip strength and health holds for all age groups, in older people it appears to be a particularly good predictor<\/a> of death<\/a>, heart attacks<\/a>, stroke, falls<\/a> and fractures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is because it seems to be an exceptionally good indicator of age-related loss of muscle mass (known as sarcopenia), power and resilience in older people.<\/p>\n

Consequently, some researchers suggest<\/a> grip strength should be considered a “new vital sign” \u2013 alongside more traditional indicators of health such as temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

The reason grip strength is a less powerful predictor of longevity in younger people compared to older age groups is because most young people are near the upper end of physiological performance.<\/p>\n

Differences in young people’s health are relatively small compared to the “noise” introduced by measurement error or random variation.<\/p>\n

As people age, however, their health varies much more, while the sources of error remain roughly the same.<\/p>\n

Consequently, this higher signal-to-noise ratio results in a much stronger relationship between grip strength and health in later life.<\/p>\n

So how did this turn into hype?<\/p>\n

The problem with the way some people communicate this is generally an issue of overreach. Things often get muddled, and this association can sometimes be turned into a prescription.<\/p>\n

When people conflate correlation with causation<\/a>, they may claim that just doing exercises to improve your grip strength, without improving your overall health, can help you live longer.<\/p>\n

But just because two variables are linked does not mean that one causes the other.<\/p>\n

Improving grip strength is not a magic path to longevity. Rather, it’s a marker or proxy of broader physiological robustness, which influences longevity.<\/p>\n

\"Close-upGrip strength is a marker or proxy of broader physiological robustness. (Do\u011fu Tuncer\/Pexels<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, some reels and articles explain the science clearly and highlight that grip strength is a proxy and not a cause, but then, paradoxically, go on to describe ways of increasing grip strength.<\/p>\n

This undoubtedly undermines the message that the relationship is not causal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the problems seems to be that influencers and journalists sometimes feel it’s not enough to just explain the science: they have to offer actionable health advice or a solution.<\/p>\n

This can lead to overreach, where advice is given that goes beyond what the evidence says.<\/p>\n

We’re all naturally drawn to simple metrics that promise insights into our health and longevity, and grip strength seems to be one of the more useful ones.<\/p>\n

Related: One Sign of Aging Could Be a Powerful Predictor of Death if You Don’t Act<\/a><\/p>\n

Grip strength is a simple and accessible marker that can help predict health and longevity, particularly in the elderly.<\/p>\n

But improving your grip strength in isolation won’t make you healthier or extend your life.<\/p>\n

The most effective drivers of health and longevity<\/a> remain the obvious ones: staying active, eating a balanced diet, sleeping well, maintaining social connections and managing stress.\"The\n<\/p>\n

Hassan Vally<\/a>, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you follow wellness channels on social media, you might’ve come across the claim that your grip strength…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[589,163,85,46],"class_list":["post-478234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}