Limp handshake could mean you're at risk of a deadly heart attack, says study

Scientists are discovering how the strength of your grip can hold astonishing powers to predict your life course.

According to new studies, the power behind a firm handshake can protect us against conditions such as heart attacks, diabetes and dementia.

On the other hand, a feeble grip may condemn us to prematurely losing our good health and intelligence.

A weak handshake can often sentence men to living solitary, unhealthy lives, researchers warned in April.

According a story conducted with 5,000 people, investigators at Columbia University in the US found that men with strong grips were more likely to be married than men with weak grips.

Women’s grip strength bore no effect on their marital status.

According to the study, the reasons underlying this link are revealed by a recent 17-year study of nearly 7,000 people by University College London, which found that having a weaker grip (at the start of the study) was associated with increased deaths, in particular from cardiovascular disease, lung disease and cancer.

A weak grip, it turns out, is a more accurate predictor for early death than having high blood pressure.

This was borne out in a study of 5,000 adults by Queen Mary University of London in March, which found those with the strongest hand grips had the healthiest hearts.

Speaking about it, Professor Vegard Skirbekk, a professor of population and family health, who led the Columbia University study, said that women seem subconsciously to know all these things and favour marrying men with firm hand grips because they will have less risk of having to look after them in later life.

In April, a study of nearly half-a-million Britons revealed that having a strong grip is associated with having a more resilient brain later in life as well.

According to researchers, grip strength provides a reliable measure of a person’s overall muscle strength — and this strength translates to being physically healthier.

A healthy body can feed the needs of a demanding human brain: an adult’s brain requires around 20 per cent of the body’s oxygen intake and consumes 20 per cent of its energy.

People with stronger grips have significantly fewer signs of ageing-related degradation of their brain’s white matter.

People with weak grips, on the other hand, tend to have higher levels of chronic inflammation — and this damages nerves in the brain, which causes age-related mental decline, too.