What can your handshake tell you about your health? Assistant Professor Ryan McGrath in NDSU Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences is quoted in a Compass by WebMD article titled “Grip Strength is a Crucial Vital Sign your Doc Has Never Taken.”
In a section of the article titled Grip Strength and Muscle Function, McGrath notes that handgrip tests can help indicate the next steps of declining health.
Multiple studies, including many by McGrath, have showed low handgrip strength may carry additional health risks such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and early all-cause mortality.
McGrath’s current research evaluates additional insights beyond maximal handgrip strength to including more aspects of muscle function, such as how fast you can express the strength, muscle endurance, and the difference in strength between your left hand and right hand.
Collecting these data may better help to illuminate potential health issues. A previous study by McGrath and others at NDSU showed that older adults whose handgrip strength weakened, as well as a gap in the strength shown by each hand, could lead to loss of function. Such a loss could affect the ability to conduct basic tasks of daily living, such as eating or dressing.
“Our research supports the use of handgrip strength as a feasible assessment of overall strength capacity to be examined during routine visits to healthcare providers,” continued McGrath. “Our current work also shows promise to better assess muscle health with new handgrip methods. This would help improve the prognostic value for how muscle function is linked to health during aging.”
While aging can result in declining muscle strength, researchers point to ways to help. Exercise such as walking, resistance training, water aerobics and more can help lessen age-related strength declines.
“Engaging in healthy lifestyles that include participating in physical activity and a balanced, healthful diet can begin and sustain at mostly any age,” said McGrath. “Being proactive about engaging in lifestyles earlier in life may especially help preserve strength, as muscle health is an important part of overall health,” he said.
McGrath’s areas of expertise include: muscle function assessment, epidemiology of aging, frailty and aging, physical activity and health for aging adults, and disability prevention.
Find more about the Healthy Aging North Dakota (HAND Lab) research at https://www.ndsu.edu/hnes/research/ and https://www.facebook.com/ndsu.hand2022
The Department of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences at NDSU offers students an opportunity to develop skills that prepare them to serve as professionals in careers related to exercise science, nutrition science, sport management, and athletic training. The department is part of the College of Health and Human Sciences at NDSU which offers programs in allied sciences; counselor education; health, nutrition, and exercise sciences; health services; human development and family science; nursing; pharmacy; and public health.
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