Whether you grasp it right away or not,
your grip strength may indicate whether or not you have undetected
diabetes and high blood pressure, University of Florida
(UF) researchers say. I can say this is interesting for several reasons. I thought
my age had something to do with my losing strength in my hands.
Apparently, even those of us with diabetes loose some grip strength.
Grip strength is something many people
don’t think about. Does it really matter whether or not you have a
firm handshake? While that may be up for debate, researchers have
found a link between how strong your grip is and your chances of
developing diabetes.
Grip strength measures could be useful
for identifying diabetes and high blood pressure in adults who have
healthy weight obesity, also known as normal weight obesity or
"skinny fat." The condition is characterized as having a
body mass index within the normal range, but a high proportion of fat
to lean muscle, typically more than 25 percent body fat in males and
35 percent in females. These individuals may be less likely to get
regular screenings for diabetes and hypertension because they aren't
considered overweight or obese by BMI measures alone, said Arch G.
Mainous III, Ph.D., the study's lead investigator and chairman of the
department of health services research, management and policy in the
University of Florida (UF) College of Public Health and Health
Professions, part of UF Health.
"We've had a significant amount
of interest and focus on obesity, and rightfully so," said
Mainous, the Florida Blue endowed chair of health administration.
"But there is a concern that health problems in people who
have decreased muscle mass, but don't fit the criteria of being
overweight, are being missed because these people aren't targeted by
screening programs."
People with healthy weight obesity are
four times more likely than people with lower body fat to develop
metabolic syndrome, which includes increased blood pressure, high
blood glucose and abnormal cholesterol levels, according to a study
by Mayo Clinic researchers. As many as 30 million Americans have
healthy weight obesity and many don't know it.
For the UF study, researchers analyzed
data from the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey, a nationally representative study that uses a combination of
interviews and physical examinations. The team assessed grip
strength measurements, blood pressure readings and blood glucose
levels for nearly 1,500 adults age 20 and older that had a BMI within
the healthy weight range—18.5 to 24.9. People with undiagnosed and
diagnosed high blood pressure and diabetes had weaker grip strength
than other healthy weight individuals who did not have those
conditions.
"In our study, grip strength
was able to identify people with undiagnosed hypertension and
diabetes relatively easily, even after we adjusted the analyses for
age, sex and whether or not they had a family history of disease,"
Mainous said.
The reason for decreased muscle
strength in healthy weight individuals with high blood pressure and
diabetes isn't well understood, but it could be caused by lower
muscle quality or a condition called "diabetic hand syndrome,"
which limits finger movement.
“Because most patients visiting
the doctor have their blood pressure tested, grip strength may be
most valuable as a non-invasive, low-cost tool for identifying people
who could possibly have diabetes. But more research is needed before
it can be put into practice as a screening tool, including
investigating how variables such as gender, age and height might
affect grip strength levels,” Mainous said.
"We still have a ways to go
before we can actually implement grip strength testing and make it
clinically useful to a primary care physician, but I think this a
good first step toward determining who might need further testing,
particularly among this group of people who would otherwise not be
recommended for screening," he said.
