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Balance to Reduce Falls Risk | By Dr James MacKay

Your ability to balance can noticeably decline with age, increasing the risk of a fall. Falls are very common from the age of 60 and over, this is an important area of health to address.  Hip fractures can lead to loss of independence. Improving balance is a key component. Your balance is largely affected by the ability of your brain to recognise the position of your body, particularly the ankle and foot. Recent research demonstrated chiropractic care significantly improved this ability compared to a control group, all of whom were 65 and older. These improvements were measurable after 4 weeks of continual chiropractic care.

The ability to recover from a stumble and prevent a fall is affected by how quickly you can respond and place your foot in a correct position. The same study also demonstrated improvements in this ability, taking 12 weeks of intervention for these changes to be measurable.

Two take home points we can learn from this research:
1. Chiropractic appears to improve some factors linked with falls risk.

2. Just as a child’s brain takes time to learn how to walk, so too does the older brain when it comes to correcting poor movement patterns. Although some improvements are seen short-term, other factors take longer to change.

If you have a few miles on the clock don’t believe you are beyond help, the study participants were all in their mid-sixties and beyond!
I invite you to get in touch with our great team to learn more about how chiropractic may reduce your risk of falls.

To Your Greatest Health!
Dr James MacKay

james-mackay-chiropractor2

Get to know Dr James:
” With the desire to dedicate myself to a career that would be fulfilling each and every day, I chose 
Chiropractic.
Chiropractic is about helping your body run at its best so you can
heal and 
deal with everything life throws at you.”

Dr James’ passions are Chiropractic, motorbikes, power lifting and most importantly food!

Read More Blogs by Dr James

References:

Holt, K. R., Haavik, H., Lee, A. C. L., Murphy, B., & Elley, C. R. (2016). Effectiveness of chiropractic care to improve sensorimotor function associated with falls risk in older people: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 39(4), 267-278.

Queensland Health (2017). Falls statistics – Stay On Your Feet | Queensland Health. [online] Available at: https://www.health.qld.gov.au/stayonyourfeet/facts/statistics [Accessed 8 Aug. 2017].

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