How Is Your Balance? What, I’m Not a Senior Yet!

In my career as a healthcare provider, I have always known balance is important for the senior population for fall prevention. As a matter of fact, one in three people over the age of 65 or older fall.  These falls can result in serious injuries and long lasting complications.

What I realized this weekend, as I nearly fell, is that I better be thinking about improving my balance now; even though I am only in my late 40’s!  These things do sneak up on you.  I can definitely tell my balance is not what it used to be. As I was stepping down off of my washer, never mind why I was up there, I lost my balance a bit and missed the step stool I used to climb up.  It was in that moment I had a flash of ‘uh oh this could end badly’. 

Luckily, I did catch myself and landed on my feet on the floor. What I realized, after my heart stopped racing, is even 5 years ago, I would have never had that bobble at the top and this little incident would never have happened. With my history in healthcare I can leverage my knowledge to help myself and start an appropriate exercise program for me.

My advice which comes from this experience is pay attention to your body for those subtle changes. Work on any declines in balance now and you will be ahead of game when you hit those senior years. If you are already 65 or older it is not too late to start.

Here is a good article to get you started if you don’t already have access to a provider that can give you good advice for starting an exercise program. In the article below there is access to several great resources for age appropriate exercise recommendations

‘How to Improve Your Balance as You Age'

Outside of a personal experience, I think about how this balance issue is critically important for the aging workforce. Slips, Trips and Falls don’t just happen at home. These types of accidents are becoming increasingly prevalent in Workers’ Compensation and Non-Occupation Disability.  Individuals are working much longer before retiring so the risk of injury within our aging workforce is increased.  It is important for companies to recognize this increasing trend and put a program in place to prevent and manage return to work if an injury does occur. 

At Briotix, we do have programs that address aging workforce issues so let us know if we can assist your company.  Contact us to learn more about these programs for your workforce.