September 16th through the 22nd is Balance Awareness Week to Defeat Dizziness. Your balance is very important especially as you get older. You want to prevent falls that can be devastating due to a fracture or injury that could put you in the hospital. It could possibly put you in a place where you aren’t able to return home and have to go into assisted living.
Balance problems affect people of all ages
There are different problems depending on what age group Tulsa Spine and Rehab sees. When I talk about people that are 65 and older, typically it’s due to a sedentary lifestyle. People get weak, they get stiff and their reactive balance forces aren’t what they were wen they were 30 years old. And that puts them at risk for falls.
The younger population that come in are along the lines of people that talk about having dizziness or vertigo. They may have had a virus or bacterial infection and it may have attacked their inner ear – that causes dizziness and a lot of equilibrium problems. And you also have people that have a basic mechanical problem in their inner ear – benign positional vertigo. It’s actually called BPPV and is caused by crystals that break off in your inner ear canals making people really, really dizzy.
One good predictive factor in balance is looking at someone’s ability to stand on one leg. Depending on what age you are, there’s a norm. For someone in their 30s and 40s, you should be able to stand on one leg for at least 30 seconds without any issue. When you get older – 65 and up – you should be able to stand 15 to 20 seconds on each leg. If you cannot stand on one leg for 10 seconds then that puts you at a high risk of falls category.
Improve your balance by staying strong.
Keeping your core and your hips and the muscles around your ankles strong will improve your balance. Also, work on your flexibility. Do stretches for your hips and your ankles to keep those muscles where they will respond to change quickly if needed. And then, just practice good balance. When I work out and when I have people work out in the Tulsa chiropractor clinic – if we’ve been doing something to strengthen the upper body, I may put them in a narrow basis support position with their lower body. Or have them stand on one leg while they do bicep curls. Maybe perform a heel to toe or a tandem stance while they are doing something else. Practicing is going to be helpful.
Dizziness is not always the primary symptom.
There are so many different things that can cause poor balance. A stroke, a head injury, if someone has had a hip fracture or a knee joint replaced – all of those things can set you up to have balance deficits.
If you or someone you know is having balance issues, get help. First, go to your physician and find out what’s causing the issue. Physical therapy in Tulsa is a wonderful route to address any kind of issues with instability either due to dizziness or other causes. But it’s something that needs to be addressed. And hopefully prevent something worse that could happen. You don’t want to fall and have an injury because the recovery time is so much greater.
Balance is important when it comes to schedules, finances and especially your body. If you’ve got more questions, contact Tulsa Spine and Rehab at (918) 743-3737 or leave a comment below.
Listen to the SpineFit Radio Podcast of this post:
Podcast: Play in new window
