So by asking me to open a jar for her my wife isn't just throwing my male ego a bone?The jar isn't just too tight. You may have an underlying health issue if you can't open your pickle jar.
Struggle opening jars? Here’s why that might indicate more serious health issues
Can’t get that pickle jar open no matter how hard you try? It may seem trivial, but new research out of Austria reports weak handgrip strength may signal more serious health issues.
Researchers say muscle strength has been a fairly accurate indicator of mortality for years. Meanwhile, prior studies have associated weak handgrip strength specifically (even among younger adults) with heart problems, lung issues, and a lower life expectancy.
Now, scientists from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis report measuring handgrip strength is a quick and inexpensive means of assessing overall muscle strength. Additionally, the research team has developed a more comprehensive approach to measuring handgrip strength.
Study authors even developed a series of “cut off points” designed to help measure grip strength more easily. Importantly, these cut off points also account for the correlation between handgrip strength with gender and body height, as well as the natural age-related decline in handgrip strength that everyone experiences.
The team set out to ascertain exactly what level of handgrip weakness should prompt concern from a doctor. Their work established standardized thresholds directly linking handgrip strength with remaining life expectancy. In theory, this provides doctors with another means of identifying patients with an increased risk of early death.
“In general, handgrip strength depends on gender, age, and the height of a person. Our task was to find the threshold related to handgrip strength that would signal a practitioner to do further examinations if a patient’s handgrip strength is below this threshold. It is similar to measuring blood pressure. When the level of blood pressure is outside of a particular range, the doctor can either decide to prescribe a particular medicine or to send the patient to a specialist for further examination,” explains IIASA researcher Sergei Scherbov in a university release.
Even a slightly weak grip could be a bad sign