Your handshake may reveal whether you're at risk of early death

ShA simple handshake can “tell” a lot about your health. What the evidence suggests is that wrist strength reveals whether you are at risk of dying early, or suffering from heart disease, depression and even dementia, writes the Daily Express.

A study published in the journal Frontiers, in 2023, revealed that a loose handshake was associated with an increased risk of death from all causes in individuals with high blood pressure.

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Another study, published in the British Medical Journal, which involved more than 1.1 million participants, concluded that people with weak handshakes have a 20% higher risk of death from heart and respiratory diseases, as well as cancer. You can read the article quoted by the newspaper that “low muscle strength in adolescents is an emerging risk factor for the leading causes of death in young adulthood, such as suicide and cardiovascular disease.”

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London, UK, have discovered that a weak handshake may be a sign of a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. In a study funded by the British Heart Foundation, researchers suggest that people with poor strength have weaker hearts and are less able to pump blood throughout the body.

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On the other hand, a 2023 investigation found a possible relationship between hand strength and depression. In the study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, which included more than 51,000 participants, it was stated that “a weaker handshake was associated with a greater likelihood of developing depression.”

but this is not all. An analysis of 15 studies, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, suggests that handshaking may also be an important indicator in diagnosing dementia, a general term used to refer to a group of diseases, such as Alzheimer's, characterized by changes in cognitive disorders. Which may be associated with memory loss, language changes, and disorientation in time or place.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are 47.5 million people with dementia worldwide, and expects this number to reach 75.6 million in 2030 and almost triple in 2050, to 135.5 million.

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