Handshakes Trump Blood Pressure Levels at Predicting Heart Disease Risk

Next time don't be surprised if your doctor shakes your hand instead of taking a blood pressure reading. A new study reveals handshakes can predict risk of early death.

Researchers who measured the grasp strength of 140,000 adults aged 35 to 70, found that the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases including stroke, increased by 17 percent with every five kilogram decrease in grip strength while overall mortality risk increased by 16 percent..

"Grip strength could be an easy and inexpensive test to assess an individual's risk of death and cardiovascular disease. Doctors or other healthcare professionals can measure grip strength to identify patients with major illnesses such as heart failure or stoke who are at particularly high risk of dying from their illness," said the study's principal investigator Dr. Darryl Leong, of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University Canada.

The study also showed variations in muscle strength in people of different ethnicities as participants were from 17 different countries.

Dr. Leong and his team are set to determine if muscle strength can be improved significantly to firm up the handshake to see if ti can lower risk of mortality. For now, the team believes that their study can be a tool for determining disease risk in low income areas as it is better predictor of mortality than blood pressure.

The study was published journal The Lancet.