Balance in Seniors is A Risk

You may not know that the leading cause of death by accidental injury in people over 65 is falls. Seems kind of silly right. How could that be. Well, usually when a fall happens, the is a fracture of a bone somewhere in the body. Hip fractures account for many of these fractures and a hip fracture in someone over 65 has a high mortality. About 75% of those people will have a complication as a result of the fracture and 50% of those will actually die.

I just read about an interesting way to help reduce falls in the elderly. This new technology is based on the scientific work done to help astronauts regain their balance after being in space for a period of time. The new device is called the iShoe and is an insert that goes in the shoe.

I could not find them available as yet, but this could be a huge health benefit for seniors.

Better Balance

We all need balance in our lives, but today I'm going to talk about the balance we need to keep from falling and injuring ourselves. As we get older, the risk from a fall is a fracture and if we don't get our arm or shoulder, we will very likely get our hip. Hip fractures can be lethal at any age, but particularly for people over the age of 65.

So there are some simple ways to improve balance. First is standing on one leg. Hold on to the back of a chair the first time you do this. Balance for a count of 15 and switch legs. Try not to wobble but to stand as steady as possible. The next step is to stand on one leg without the assistance of the chair. Start for a count of 5 and begin increasing that until you are able to stand for the full count of 15 without using the chair and without being overly wobbly. The next step is to close your eyes while you do this. I would definitely recommend that you keep the chair with you but see how long you can go without it. The longer you go the better your balance the less likely you are to fall and break a hip or an arm.