Research

Mixed

Higher genetically predicted hand grip strength has a causal protective effect against fracture risk, but does not causally reduce all-cause mortality or cardiovascular disease risk.

Focus on building grip strength and overall muscle mass primarily to protect your bones and prevent fractures as you age, rather than expecting it to directly prevent heart disease or extend your life. Use resistance training to maintain functional capacity and reduce fall risk.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Mendelian randomization analyses are consistent with a causal effect of higher genetically predicted grip strength on lower fracture risk... MR analyses showed no evidence for causality in the associations of grip strength with CVD or all-cause mortality
Sara M. Willems et al. · Nature Communications · 2017

Why this rating

Large-scale GWAS (N=195,180) combined with robust Mendelian Randomization provides high-confidence genetic evidence for causality, though observational confounding in non-genetic studies remains a counter-argument.

Source

Large-scale GWAS identifies multiple loci for hand grip strength providing biological insights into muscular fitness

Sara M. Willems et al. · Nature Communications · 2017

DOI 10.1038/ncomms16015

cohort · n=195180Cited 228×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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