What Causes Balance Issues In Older Adults?
Every year, one in three older people in the U.S. and over one in four 65 years of age or older fall. One of the leading causes of disability among older adults is falling and this may happen due to gait and balance issues. Despite these alarming statistics, however, most falls can be prevented.
In this article, you will learn what causes balance issues, particularly in older adults, some of the most common balance issues older adults face, how to recognize when someone has balance issues and what to do about them to avoid falls, and the dangers they pose to health and safety.
Understanding Balance Issues
How you walk changes as you age. Your gait, stride, and other mobility factors can be affected by an array of both medical and lifestyle factors. After 50 years of age, balance issues can worsen when going from sitting to standing, walking around, or moving the head up and down or side-to-side.
If you experience balance issues that start negatively impacting your life, contact your doctor immediately.
What Is the Vestibular System?
The vestibular system, or the organ of balance, is a sensory system that provides the brain with information about spatial orientation, motion, and head position. It plays a pivotal role in motor functions that enable the body to maintain balance and posture and stabilize the body and head during movement. It is therefore an essential system for maintaining equilibrium and normal movement.
The ear is an intricate system of cartilage and bone. The vestibular system is located in the inner ear and is composed of three semicircular canals and two organs all filled with fluid.
Each of the semicircular canals is involved with a different motion of the head:
- Moving up and down
- Turning left and right
- Tilting side to side
The two organs, or otolith organs, are similarly involved with the sense of acceleration and deceleration.
As you move, the fluid in the semicircular canals and otolith organs changes position. Lining the inner walls of these canals and organs are tiny hairs that act as sensors, detecting these movements of fluid over them.
These sensors then relay that information over nerves to the brain, thereby helping produce your sense of balance.
How Does the Vestibular System Affect Balance?
When the brain receives signals from the sensors in the ear, it processes that information, then relays it to the muscles, joints, eyes, and other organs that use it to understand the position your body is in.
By communicating the same information to all the involved body parts, the brain maintains a sense of balance. However, when certain circumstances send contradictory messages through the vestibular system to the brain (such as while sitting still in an airplane in rapid motion), it can throw off your sense of balance. read more