When should I call the doctor about balance problems?
Although it is natural to notice a decrease in your sense of b a lanc e st ar t ing in your 50s, you should not consider a severe loss of balance to be an inevitability of old age that you must passively accept. There is much that you and your health care practitioners can do to improve your quality of life, avoid falls, and extend your longevity.
Talk to your doctor whenever you notice increased dizziness, lightheadedness, or vertigo (the feeling that the room is spinning). Your doctor may perform a thorough physical examination (including observations of you walking), review the medications you’re taking to see if there are balance-related side effects to individual meds or to drug combinations, and, depending on the results, may order more balance-specific testing to be done.
You should always tell your doctor if you’ve fallen, even if you weren’t hurt (similarly, report any uptick in near-falls). Falling is the leading cause of injury for people ages 65 and older. In fact, for people 85 and older, 147 out of 100,000 falls prove fatal. It’s crucial that you seek help for your balance before experiencing severe consequences of a fall such as bone fractures or head injuries.
Many falls occur during the night when people rise suddenly out of bed to use the bathroom. Moving through a dark room in a halfawake state, having abruptly shifted from a reclined to an upright position, is a recipe for disorientation and loss of balance.
Balance exercises for seniors If you’re very unstable, exercise while seated in a firm chair and proceed to more advanced exercises later. To start building your core, squeeze your shoulder blades together as if holding a tennis ball between them for 10 repetitions. Next, try standing up from the chair and then carefully sitting back down for 10 repetitions (be sure the chair is stationary). If it’s safe for you to do so, stand behind the chair, grasping its back as you lift one leg out to the side and lower it to the floor. Change feet. Perform 10 repetitions per side.
Once it’s safe for you to work without a chair, perform one to three sets of 10 heel raises, in which you rise onto your toes, maintaining good posture. Next, while focusing on a spot ahead of you, stand with your feet heel to toe and hold the position for from five to 30 seconds. Switch feet. Practice standing with only one foot on the ground, holding the pose for from five to 30 seconds, and again change feet.
At the advanced level, you might try braiding, in which you move laterally while crossing the “active” foot in front of and then behind the other. Move right, then left. Another great exercise is the reverse lunge, in which you step backward onto the ball of your right foot, torso perpendicular to the floor and left thigh parallel to it. Switch legs and do one to three sets of 10 repetitions per side. This in reference to Harvard Health.
Risley can be contacted at the OSU Cooperative Extension Service in Sequoyah County at 918-775-4838 or at janis. risley@okstate.edu.
