Stronger Muscles Tracked With Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk at Every Genetic Risk Level

CATEGORY: METABOLIC & BLOOD SUGAR

Adults with greater muscle strength were about 44% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes—a condition in which the body struggles to use insulin properly, so blood sugar runs too high—than those with the least strength, a large UK study found. Strikingly, the link held even for people whose genes put them at higher risk, suggesting stronger muscles may be associated with lower diabetes risk regardless of family history.¹

141,848 UK Adults, Grip Tests and 138 Genetic Markers

Researchers followed 141,848 adults in the UK Biobank, a long-running health study, none of whom had diabetes at the start. Each person’s muscle strength was measured with a hand grip test and adjusted for lean body mass, then sorted into low, medium and high groups. The team also calculated each person’s inherited risk using a genetic score built from 138 DNA markers tied to type 2 diabetes. Over a median of about seven years, 4,743 people developed the disease, and the researchers compared how often it appeared across the strength and genetic-risk groups.

44% Lower Risk at Every Genetic Risk Level

Compared with the weakest group, those with the highest muscle strength had roughly a 44% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The connection was present at every level of genetic risk, though it was somewhat weaker among those with the strongest inherited risk. Even so, people at high genetic risk who also had high muscle strength had a lower estimated chance of diabetes over eight years than some people with lower genetic risk but weaker muscles.¹ The estimated 8-year risk of type 2 diabetes was 2.47% for high genetic risk with high muscle strength, versus 2.89% and 4.00% for low and medium genetic risk with low strength.¹

Muscle Burns Blood Sugar and Responds to Insulin

Muscle is where much of the sugar in your blood gets used for fuel. Stronger, more active muscle tends to pull glucose out of the bloodstream more readily and respond better to insulin, the hormone that ushers sugar into cells. When muscles are weak or underused, sugar is more likely to linger in the blood—which may help explain why greater strength tracked with lower diabetes risk.

Undiagnosed Metabolic Problems Could Sap Strength First

Because this was an observational study—one that tracks people without assigning them to groups—it can show an association but cannot prove that stronger muscles directly prevent diabetes. It is also possible that early, undiagnosed metabolic problems sap strength, rather than the other way around. Still, the findings add to evidence that muscle health and blood sugar are closely tied.

Grip Strength Relative to Body Size Showed Consistent Links

A 2023 review pooling a dozen cohort studies found grip strength judged relative to body size was consistently linked to lower type 2 diabetes risk, while raw grip strength alone showed only a weak link, with body fat carrying much of the connection.² An earlier pooled analysis of more than 1.7 million adults also linked higher muscular strength to lower risk after accounting for body fat, though the association was more modest.³

Key Takeaways

• In a large UK study, adults with greater muscle strength were about 44% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with the least strength.
• The link appeared even in people with a higher inherited risk of diabetes, though it was somewhat weaker in that group.
• This was an observational study following people for about seven years, so it shows an association, not cause and effect.

References

1. Wang M, Collings PJ, Jang H, et al. Prospective associations between muscle strength and genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes with incident type 2 diabetes: a UK Biobank study. BMC Medicine. 2025;23(1):93. link
2. Wu H, Gu Y, Wang X, et al. Association between handgrip strength and type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study and systematic review with meta-analysis. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. 2023;78(8):1383–1391. link.
3. Tarp J, Støle AP, Blond K, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2019;62(7):1129–1142. link.