Fall Factors: Balance

Rick — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:56:10 +0000

Body and environment factors contribute to falls. Body factors, consist of our sense of balance, muscle strength, flexibility, posture and muscle control. Environment factors are poor lighting, obstacles, slippery or unstable surfaces and lack of support. An issue or deficit in any one factor can increase your chances of taking a tumble, but in many instances multiple factors are present.

Our Sense of Balance

Our sense of balance comes from our ears, eyes and brains. In youth, our inner-ears provide the dominant sense of balance. But for many of us, as we age, our vision plays an increasing role in our overall perception of balance. The impact of vision on balance can be seen in the dizzying sensation of vertigo that some experience in high places. Over time, however, many of us begin to rely more and more heavily on our eyes to give us confidence about our balance and we trust and use our inner-ears less. So it is, that changes in our vision–or poor lighting–become contributing factors in falls.

As mentioned, our chief source of balance is our ears. It originates in three semi-circular tubes inside the ear and two other small organs. These three structures provide information to the brain stem and cerebellum, the parts of the brain at its base and connected to the spinal cord. These parts of the brain are not part of your conscious awareness, so you can make small changes to your posture, to your limb position and even make changes to eye movement to help manage balance without being aware of it.

When our sense of balance is thrown-off we can feel dizzy, disoriented or nausea. There are some diseases that permanently affect our balance, but temporary balance changes can be from something as simple as a new medication, an inner-ear infection, a bad head-cold, or dehydration.

Join us next week for Part 2 Fall Factors: Our Bodies

Go to the previous post in this series: Fall Cause and Survival–Introduction

Fall Cause and Survival Introduction

Rick — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:06:03 +0000

In-home falls are often caused by hazards that are easy to fix. Unfortunately, easy doesn’t get done, and so these hazards are ignored and overlooked. Each year more than a third of adults over 65 experience a fall. Statistics collected by the CDC indicate that if you have one fall you are two to three times more likely to fall again. Falling is a slippery slope that could be easily avoided. To make matters worse, falls don’t just mean the minor pumps and bruises of youth. In seniors, falls can lead to injury, disability, reduced physical function, loss of independence, drastically increased cost of care, and in the worst scenario–death.

At A WiserMind, we strive to help maximize quality of life. That’s not just limited to the brain and emotional health therapies that we specialize in, but also in all aspects of quality of life. Helping to reduce falls and their consequences can have a huge impact on improving quality of life and overall fitness.

In this multipart post, we’ll look at the internal and external causes of falls and we’ll provide simple suggestions to reduce your chances. In later posts we’ll provide some suggestions to help improve your chances of surviving a fall should you have the misfortune of taking a spill.

To learn more, click here to go to, Part 1, Fall Factors: Balance.

A Wiser Mind » falls

Fall Factors: Balance

Our Sense of Balance

Fall Cause and Survival Introduction