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Comment by jasfi | Hacker News Reader

I think a lot of this is because of balance issues. Many people have this type of problem and it can be corrected, or at least improved, with balance exercises. A physical therapist that knows about them can show elderly people how to do them. They're actually helpful before you get elderly, you might not even realize how off your balance is.

If you look at photos of people doing some of these exercises, their eyes are closed or they're wearing something over their eyes. This is to invoke non-visual means of balancing, which is really important.

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Based on my grandmother who was always very mobile well into old age and did eventually become at risk for falls: a lot of it is not lifting your feet anymore. As the leg muscles get weaker, seniors often don't fully lift their feet off the ground when walking and this drastically increases the risk of tripping on shallow obstacles like the rim of a rug.

She was able to put on a shoe while standing on the other leg but she noticed that she had stopped properly lifting her feet while walking and this eventually led to her first bad fall after which she physically deteriorated further. She had to consciously think to lift her feet while walking rather than "shuffling".

I think the root cause for this may indeed be balance issues though as the "shuffle" feels like it would stabilize and balance issues make it harder to prevent a fall when tripping up.

Interesting. Balancing exercises can strengthen your legs too, although obviously leg exercises would work better. I noticed a problem in older people who have never gone to a gym, is that they have no idea how to exercise, and no motivation to either.

I guess they really need physical therapists.

I recall reading a study about how the nerves in the legs deteriorated as we got old, and how stimulating them with "noise" significantly reduced the risk of falling.

The method of stimulation was to have slightly bumpy surface under their feet, though can't recall if they used special socks or inlays or what.

IIRC the idea was to boost the stimulation when they walked to revert or counteract the deterioration of the nerves.

Balance issues usually are a symptom of an underlying condition.

For instance, an elderly relative of mine has had several strokes. While they have regular PT sessions, it's basically impossible for them to automate countering balancing issues. Neurological specialists and therapists essentially agreed: that relative isn't going to walk a significant distance, especially outdoors, without a walker as the risk to falling is just too high. Their home (e.g. bathroom, stairs,...) has also been adapted to prevent falls.

In that regard, minding your health at a younger age pays dividends later on as it reduces to risks of landing a condition that might lead to a nasty fall.

That can be the case, but there are also other causes.

Here's a study looking at some numbers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10242407/

They found that in 2016 about 36.8 (± 1.0) million people had balance problems in the US.

Also, many people don't know they have these problems.

I'm fairly young and I have balance issues. If I won't address them in near future,the retirement period will look very very bleak for me.

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