Grip strength may help to identify diabetes risk: Study

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Study suggests that grip strength may help to identify early diabetes risk in adults. 

According to new guidelines, grip strength measurements have a connection with the early symptoms of Type 2 diabetes. Although the early stage of Type 2 diabetes might not have ‘obvious symptoms’, it can make the detection and treatment difficult leading to cardiovascular issues, respectively.

Experts believe that Type 2 diabetes may reveal itself by means of muscle weakness often in the form of an individuals’ grip strength. The loss in grip strength therefore, may be a significant diagnostic clue in adults who may be healthy otherwise. However, no specific grip strength values are so far available. So far, experts have been able to identify specific ‘grip strength cut points’ which may help in indication of Type 2 diabetes, enabling experts to perform quick and easy testing for the medical condition.

Based on the recent study, researchers have been able to identify the levels of handgrip strength and/or weakness which correlates with the Type 2 diabetes in men and women seemingly healthy as per their body weight and ages, respectively.

The study which appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, conducted by researchers from Oakland University and the University of Scotland, observed that approximately more than thirty-four million people suffer from diabetes in the United States alone based on statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They inferred that almost ninety to ninety-five percent of these people have Type 2 diabetes which is linked with heightened risk of ‘cardiovascular morbidity and mortality’.

In addition to this, while Type 2 diabetes usually affects adults above the ages of forty-five or above, recently it is appearing more and more in younger adults, teenagers and even children. Although people can usually manage diabetes, and an early diagnosis can make it possible to even prevent or delay the development of cardiovascular diseases including: retinopathy, neuropathy, kidney disease also known as nephropathy, respectively.

The researchers have analyzed grip strength data between the years 2011-2014 as provided by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and inferred the ‘cut points’ that can indicate Type 2 diabetes. The data included grip strength tests from almost 5,108 participants’ muscle strength observed by means of handgrip dynamometer devices. Moreover, the researchers reportedly excluded who were believed to have hypertension or any other comorbidities of diabetes. According to the latest research, this data was collected from younger to older adults ranging between twenty to eighty years, respectively.

As explained by the research team, a dynamometer is a device that helps to capture the combined grip strength of an individual’s hands [right and left] as a kilogram value. They added that dividing this number the weight of the individual in kilograms helps to give the normalized grip strength.

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