Genetically increased muscle strength, particularly hand grip strength, is associated not only with a longer life expectancy, but also with a lower risk of developing various diseases.
A new study involving experts from the University of Helsinki examined whether a genetic predisposition to greater muscle strength has an impact on age-related non-communicable diseases, survival after acute illness and the risk of early death. The results can be read in the “Journals of Gerontology Series A”.
Data from more than 340,000 people
The study evaluated genetic information and health data from 342,443 people living in Finland. The participants were between 40 and 108 years old and 53 percent were women.
The results showed that participants with a genetic predisposition to greater muscle strength had a lower risk of common non-communicable diseases and also the risk of premature death, the team reports. The selected diagnoses were based on the most common causes of death and the most important non-communicable diseases in Finland.
However, when it comes to survival after acute illnesses, the genetic predisposition for greater muscle strength does not predict better survival, the researchers add.
Why higher muscle strength protects
In general, muscle strength, especially grip strength, may indicate an individual’s physiological resources to protect against and cope with age-related diseases. Muscle strength decreases with increasing age.
This decrease is individual and is influenced not only by lifestyle but also by genetics, the researchers explain.
“It appears that a genetic predisposition to greater muscle strength reflects an individual’s intrinsic ability to resist and protect against pathological changes that occur during aging, rather than the ability to recover or recover from severe adversity to fully recover from it,” reports study author Päivi Herranen in a press release.
What factors influence muscle strength?
In general, muscle strength is influenced by lifestyle, environmental factors and numerous genetic variants, each of which has only a small influence on muscle strength.
“Based on these results, we cannot say how lifestyle factors such as physical activity modify an individual’s intrinsic ability to resist disease and whether their effects on health vary from individual to individual due to genetics,” explains Herranen.
Muscle strength to predict disease risk
The new findings show that information about the genetic predisposition to muscle strength, in addition to the conventional methods of risk assessment already used, can help identify people at a particularly high risk of common diseases and health impairments, the researchers conclude. (as)
