Firm Handshake, Long Life?

LONDON (CBS/Reuters) Want a long life? If you have a firm handshake, walk fast and don't dawdle getting up from that chair, you might have a chance.

That's the equation that British researchers have put together in a new study that found that elderly people who could still give a firm handshake and walk at a brisk pace were likely to outlive their slower peers.

Scientists at the Medical Research Council pooled data from 33 studies and looked at tens of thousands of people, mostly over 60 and mostly living at home.

What did they find?

• The death rate over the period of the studies for people with weak handshakes was 67 percent higher than for people with a firm grip.
  
• The slowest walkers were nearly three times more likely to die during the study period than swifter walkers.
  
• The people who were slowest to get up from a chair had about double the mortality rate compared to the quick risers.

In some sense, the study is self evident.

"Those people in the general population who have higher physical capability levels are likely to live longer," said Rachel Cooper of the Medical Research Council's Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing.

You don't say.

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