The one number we should know, and don't.

GOT GRIP?

THE TL:DR on GRIP

Most health screenings miss one of the most powerful predictors of long-term health we have available. It takes two minutes to measure. It costs almost nothing. And it tells us something that no standard blood panel can.

It's called handgrip strength.

Here's why it matters.

Grip strength is not just a measure of how strong your hands or forearms are. It is a proxy for your whole-body neuromuscular integrity, your metabolic health, and how fast you are biologically aging. When researchers want to understand a person's physiological trajectory, grip strength is one of the first things they measure.

The peer-reviewed evidence behind it is striking:

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found that lower grip strength is associated with nearly double the risk of cognitive decline and 54% higher risk of dementia, independent of age, BMI, and activity level.

A 2025 genetic analysis of over 25,000 participants found that genetic predisposition to lower grip strength independently predicts faster cognitive decline, suggesting the relationship is not just correlational. It is likely causal.

And the PURE study, published in The Lancet, followed 139,691 individuals across 17 countries and found grip strength to be a stronger predictor of all-cause mortality than systolic blood pressure.

Beyond cognitive decline, a single grip strength measurement predicts:

- All-cause mortality

- Cardiovascular disease and mortality

- Type 2 diabetes

- Physical disability and hospitalization rates

For two minutes and a simple device, that is a remarkable amount of clinical information. The good news: grip strength responds to resistance training. It is measurable, trackable, and improvable. A declining trend over time is an early warning we can act on, often years before any symptom emerges.

In Health,

Dr. Rhiannon

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References:

[1] Cui M et al. Grip strength and the risk of cognitive decline and dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2021.

[2] Genetic predisposition to hand grip strength predicts cognitive decline. ScienceDirect, 2025. 25,000+ participants.

[3] Leong DP et al. Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the PURE study. The Lancet, 2015.

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