Hands Archive

Your ability to grab, hold, twist , and squeeze is essential for many everyday functions.

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Think how much you rely on a strong grip every day. It helps you open cans, grip a golf club, hold a steering wheel, brush your teeth, and pick up a grandchild. "The ability to stay active and independent often begins with our hands," says Maria Cole, a physical therapist with Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Outpatient Center. "Weak grip strength can limit your enjoyment of many life pleasures, so you need to ensure your hand and grip strength always are up to the task."

A measure of health

Exercise your hands

A few simple exercises can preserve the strength and flexibility of your hands and wrists.

 Image: Thinkstock

There's a reason that "having a good grip on the situation" is used as a metaphor for mastery. In physiological testing, grip strength is one of the indicators of health and vitality. Yet, although we may exercise to strengthen our cores and limbs, most of us don't make an effort to strengthen our forearms and our hands. "We use our hands continually, but we don't take the time to deliberately exercise them," says Joanne P. Bosch, a physical therapist and certified hand therapist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

That said, it's not a good idea to rush out and buy a device promoted for building a "crushing hand grip" or to start squeezing a tennis ball. "Doing the wrong exercise can actually exacerbate some problems, particularly carpal tunnel syndrome," Bosch says.

The strength of your hands may hold clues to the health of your heart. A study in the December 2015 American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people with stronger handgrips had more favorable findings on measures of their cardiovascular health than those with weaker grips.

The study included more than 4,200 adults ages 20 and older who were part of a nationwide health study. Researchers used a device called a dynamometer to measure each participant's hand strength, adjusting the readings based on body mass index. They found that higher handgrip strength was associated with lower blood pressure, lower triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), lower blood sugar, and higher HDL (good) cholesterol.

Ask the doctor

Q. My right hand goes numb when I open a can or use hand tools. Is this something I need to worry about? Do I have carpal tunnel syndrome?

A. The hand receives its sensory information from three different nerves, and irritation of any of them can lead to numbness. In the hand, numbness is often related to the way that the nerve is compressed or squeezed slightly when you bend your wrist, as happens when you open a can. Excess vibration or repetitive hand motion when you use tools may also cause numbness.

A strong or weak hand grip carries more than just social cues. It may also help measure an individual’s risk for having a heart attack or stroke, or dying from cardiovascular disease. As part of the international Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study, researchers measured grip strength in nearly 140,000 adults in 17 countries and followed their health for an average of four years. Each 11-pound decrease in grip strength over the course of the study was linked to a 16% higher risk of dying from any cause, a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, a 9% higher risk of stroke, and a 7% higher risk of heart attack. Interestingly, grip strength was a better predictor of death or cardiovascular disease than blood pressure. What’s the connection? It’s possible that grip strength measures biological age.