HOW TO IMPROVE AND MAINTAIN BODY BALANCE DR BRAADT’S HEALTH TIPS
Minimizing Your Health Risks
MUSCLE TONE It’s very important to maintain the strength and tone of your muscles. As you age, muscle strength and tone can diminish, leading to balance problems. Regular activities like brisk walking, getting up and down into a chair repetitively, doing calf raises up and down on a step, balancing on one leg while holding onto a wall if necessary, stationary biking, and regular gym exercises (under supervision if needed) all contribute to maintaining muscular strength and tone that improve your balance. Remember, it’s never too early or too late to take action to minimize your health risks, like falling and breaking bones. If you fail to improve and maintain your body balance, you can move and appear as if you are old: Your gait and steps shorten, and you may start to shuffle and will need a cane, walker, or, eventually, wheelchair. Failed body balance creates spinal pain with advancing spine degeneration-arthritis. However, foot, knee, and hip problems, called a kinetic chain , can have a domino effect on your joints, impairing your balance. After completing a three-year diplomate program in orthopedics and a one-year program in rehabilitation, I can address these joint problems without the risks of unnecessary drugs and surgery. Handling these problems will contribute to your body balance. If you have a problem in this area, be sure to let me know. If you have a family member, friend, or coworker in need, please give them a gift certificate, available at our front desk, to find out if we can help. Thank you for sharing your health successes with others; it gives them hope to live a pain-free, energetic life. SPECIAL NOTE: CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT FOR ARTHRITIS Some of you consider chiropractic teatment for only your spine.
“Help! I’ve fallen and can’t get up!”
You’ve probably seen the medical alert system commercials on TV. Improving and maintaining body balance is important at all ages but becomes more critical as we get older. Taking action now might save you from having to call 911 down the road.
Let’s review some factors that improve and maintain your body balance.
Balance and posture are a coordination of multiple senses: vision, sense of joint position, coordination of your inner ear, and muscle tone. VISION Maintain your vision with yearly examinations by your optometrist. Depth perception is vital for walking, climbing and descending stairs, and avoiding objects. Some of you have consulted me about injuries due to missing that last step, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk, or bumping into an unseen object. SENSE OF JOINT POSITION If you close your eyes, do you know where your hands and feet are? This is an example of sense of joint position, also called proprioception. Specialized nerve cells, called mechanoreceptors, are in the ligaments that hold your bones together. These cells tell your brain the position of your limbs and spine. This sense of joint position can deteriorate with age and deconditioning. Arthritis of your knee or hip, a bunion on your foot, development of peripheral neuropathy (a degeneration of nerves in your legs and arms), and stenosis (the narrowing of the spinal openings for your nerves) will adversely affect your balance. I’m putting together a sample of exercises you can do that will be available at the front desk. INNER EAR Have your ears checked annually by your primary care doctor or an audiologist. Common problems that can occur include wax buildup in your ear canal and diminished hearing, which can also affect the portion of your ear that’s responsible for equilibrium and balance. Your ear does two things: It hears sounds and assists your sense of balance. A deterioration of one can affect the other.
As always, I’m available to help you as needed!
–Dr. Paul Braadt
CedarCrestChiropractic.com
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610-776-2005
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