Weak Grip In Middle Age may Indicate Diabetes Risk

To asses someone's grip strength using a handgrip dynamometer takes less than 10 seconds, which makes it extremely attractive to adopt in a clinical setting.

A simple test to determine grip strength may help identify adults at risk of developing diabetes in middle age, suggests a study that found an association between weak grip and metabolic disease and disability in adults.

Low grip strength was greatly associated with both cardiometabolic diseases and physical disabilities in middle-age to older adults, both men and women, the findings, published in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Medical Sciences, showed.

Weight Gain Increases Risk of Developing Gestational Diabetes
Obesity is a known risk factor for gestational diabetes. Women who gain one to two kilos every year are at risk for developing gestational diabetes.

‘Low grip strength was greatly associated with both cardiometabolic diseases and physical disabilities in middle-age to older adults, both men and women.’

"We wanted to examine grip strength in particular because it is highly associated with overall body strength," said lead study author Mark Peterson, Assistant Professor at Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan in the US.

"To asses someone's grip strength using a handgrip dynamometer takes less than 10 seconds, which makes it extremely attractive to adopt in a clinical or community setting at the population level," Peterson said.

The research team analysed normalised grip strength for 4,544 US and 6,030 Chinese study participants 50 years of age and older.

Night Shift Workers At Higher Risk For Type 2 Diabetes
Night shift workers are at an increased risk for developing diabetes, as they have trouble controlling their blood sugar levels.

Using weighted logistic regression models, the team assessed the association between normalised grip strength and physical disability, diabetes and other metabolic disorder.

For every 0.05 decrement in normalised grip strength in U.S. and Chinese adults, respectively, there were 49 percent and 17 percent increased odds for diabetes, the findings showed.

Youths With Diabetes Not Being Screened as Recommended for Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a serious complication of diabetes that is often asymptomatic in early and occasionally later stages.

It was also linked to 36 percent and 11 percent increased odds for disability status, according to the study.

Source-IANS

Statin Drugs : Increase Risk of Diabetes in Older Women
Statin drugs were linked to an increased risk of diabetes in the older women, reveals study.