Weak Grip May Predict Alzheimer’s Risk

Poprotskiy Alexey/Shutterstock

Two powerful tools for early Alzheimer’s detection may fit in the palm of your hand. In fact, one of those tools is your hand.

Doctors want to identify patients at risk for brain diseases like dementia and stroke early, before symptoms develop, with tests that are fast, cheap, painless, and easy for general practitioners to perform as part of a regular checkup.

Brain scans like MRI can help predict dementia risk, but they aren’t practical for routine screenings. Now, a new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, shows that by measuring walking speed with a standard stopwatch, and handgrip strength with a simple device called a dynamometer, doctors can predict which patients are at the highest risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. In patients over 65, handgrip strength also helps predict stroke.

Those with the weakest handgrip during the first round of testing—the bottom 10 percent of the group—were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia during the 11-year follow-up period. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images