I'll never forget the day I watched helplessly as my wife's grandmother's world changed in an instant, all due to a simple loss of balance.
Did you know that our sense of balance is a key to our longevity?
Today, we unravel the complex web of factors affecting balance, from medication side effects to the nuanced roles of the vestibular system and vision. Discover the bridge between balance, longevity, and proprioception and learn why Americans might not be as steady on their feet as we'd hope. With practical tips and at-home balance tests, this episode is an essential listen for anyone keen on keeping their equilibrium as they age.
As you lace up your sneakers and prepare for your next workout, consider this: balance is an athletic skill that often goes unnoticed until it's at risk. We spotlight easy-to-integrate balance exercises that can transform your fitness routine and safeguard your independence in later years. By modifying simple movements like lunges, we can significantly diminish the likelihood of falls and enhance athletic performance. Join me on this journey into the world of balance and proprioception, where the benefits go far beyond staying on your feet – they're about mastering the art of moving through life with grace and strength.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
I'll never forget the day I watched helplessly as my wife's grandmother's world changed in an instant, all due to a simple loss of balance.
Did you know that our sense of balance is a key to our longevity?
Today, we unravel the complex web of factors affecting balance, from medication side effects to the nuanced roles of the vestibular system and vision. Discover the bridge between balance, longevity, and proprioception and learn why Americans might not be as steady on their feet as we'd hope. With practical tips and at-home balance tests, this episode is an essential listen for anyone keen on keeping their equilibrium as they age.
As you lace up your sneakers and prepare for your next workout, consider this: balance is an athletic skill that often goes unnoticed until it's at risk. We spotlight easy-to-integrate balance exercises that can transform your fitness routine and safeguard your independence in later years. By modifying simple movements like lunges, we can significantly diminish the likelihood of falls and enhance athletic performance. Join me on this journey into the world of balance and proprioception, where the benefits go far beyond staying on your feet – they're about mastering the art of moving through life with grace and strength.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Welcome to the DiRobi Health Show. Today we're talking about balance and I'm going to start with two stories. First of all, on my wife's side of the family, a few years ago she had an elderly member of the family we affectionately called her Grammy and she was one of these people in her 80s that was the life of the party. She lived in kind of one of these upscale elderly retirement homes with all kinds of entertainment and good food and she seemed quite happy. She was the life of the party. She was playing games, she was going to all the activities, she was going out to plays. We enjoyed visiting her and spending time with her. But one day she fell. She fell down a small flight of stairs. It was actually a large flight of stairs but she was towards the bottom and unfortunately broke her hip. I was fairly young at the time, I think in my 30s anyway. We went to visit her and I was really surprised how despondent she was. It was quite sad and it took so much out of her. This is kind of my first introduction to how severe it can be when an elderly person falls and she died within six weeks. She never came out of the rehab center after her surgery and it was quite shocking because she was so healthy until she fell down.
Dave Sherwin:Story number two I was at a CrossFit gym. I started CrossFit, did it for a few years in my 40s, very much enjoyed CrossFit, had some great instructors, went through about three gyms over several years and had a good experience with it. At one point we were warming up and they had us take a small ball I think it was a lacrosse ball actually. It said, okay, now stand on your left foot, hold the ball above your head and your right hand and just reach down to the ground, lean forward. So imagine kind of a stork position. Right, your left leg is straight, you have a ball over your head. You just go down to the ground, let go of the ball, lift your other arm, go back down to the ground and pick up the ball with your other hand, back and forth. I thought, oh, I'm going to kill this.
Dave Sherwin:I was that kid who always had good balance. I was a boy scout who when we got to the river that had a log over it. I was excited to just walk across because I had confidence in my balance and felt like I could show off and get to the other side and if other boys were scared, I was going to be the show off who would do it. And that was kind of me at that time and I took that sense of balance for granted. But that day in my 40s, as I bent over, I lost my balance and I was like what the? I was kind of disappointed in myself. I tried it on my other leg and I was shocked to discover that this sense of balance that I'd taken for granted for so long had not been used in some time. And it was slipping. And other people around me some were struggling, some were doing it very well, so they'd become the show off kids who could do the thing, and I was the one who was now watching on and going oh my gosh, other people have a better sense of balance than I do. When did that happen? Why did that happen?
Dave Sherwin:And we we come to find out that keeping your balance is actually a strong marker of longevity. You're less likely to fall as you get older, and having a strong sense of balance is something that we need to start paying attention to, especially after we turn the age of 40. So that's what I want to talk about today. Balance issues are common among other adults. There's various factors that contribute, including the side effects of medications, inner ear problems and conditions like diabetes or heart disease. These all can diminish your balance. Obviously, general aging affects our pro pro preoception man I struggle with the big words, I'm sorry about that Proprioception, the sense of body position where we are in space, which is crucial for maintaining balance. Our reflexes slow down. Our vestibular system, our inner ear balance system degenerates. And also vision. If our vision gets impaired, that also takes away from our balance. As a matter of fact, if you stand on one leg and close your eyes, you'll discover very quickly how important balance, or how important eyesight, is to your balance. Alarmingly, approximately 20% of adults over the age of 15 in the United States cannot stand on one foot for more than 10 seconds. This is a terrific test for you to do right now, no matter how old you are. Try to stand on one leg. If you haven't done this in a while, you may be shocked. You may not have the natural balance that you had as a younger person. Try it on each leg and then try it, like I said a minute ago, closing your eyes. What we find out, dear listener, is that we should start working on our balance as we get older. This will help us live longer, it will reduce our risk of falling and we will generally keep our athleticism better. We'll be able to perform better in any sports that demand balance, such as golf.
Dave Sherwin:I'm going to talk about some of these things. First of all, exercise and physical activity. One of the things that I have changed in my exercise, now that I understand this issue of balance, is I have changed up some of my exercises to do them on one leg, or exercises that are often done with your legs parallel to each other. I will do them a different way. Let me give you a quick example. Just this morning, my workout called for doing lunges with dumbbells, one in each hand. I don't do them that way anymore because of this balance issue. Now, a lunge already requires some balance, so that's terrific. But let me tell you something even better. What you do? You take a kettlebell or a dumbbell and you put it in the hand that's opposite to the leg. That's working. You go down and what you're going to find is that your stabilizer muscles have to work when you do a lunge that way. Then you come up, switch the weight to the other hand, and do your lunges that way, so that while you're doing your lunges, you're also working on your balance.
Dave Sherwin:There's a variety of other exercises that you can do specifically for your balance. There's actually so many that I won't even go through very many. Just a handful here. But if you're really interested in the subject, I do recommend that you add weight balancing workouts or exercises into your natural routine. The simplest of these are just called weight shifts, where you simply shift your weight just like it sounds like from one foot to the other. This is something you can do while waiting in line, while you're eating. If you just want to stand up for a minute while you eat and go back and forth. Whatever watching television, you can stand and shift your weight back and forth, and it actually makes a difference, even lifting the other foot off the ground and holding the position.
Dave Sherwin:The second one is very much like it. It's single leg balance, the only difference being that you would focus on developing out the strength in each leg to stand on one leg for as long as you can. The next is bicep curls and other exercises on one leg. Imagine you can probably picture this right now having a dumbbell in each hand and doing bicep curls while standing on one leg and then switching back and forth, similar to what I mentioned with the lunges. This is now adding balance into an otherwise fairly normal activity, but you're getting a twofer. You're now doing the activity in a way that's improving your balance.
Dave Sherwin:Don't forget the calves. Cavs are critical to balance, whether we do machine sitting calf raises or standing calf raises, doing simple heel raises. Back to the balance thing. Sometimes when I work out at home, I will take a 50 pound kettlebell, hold it on one side and do a calf raise just on the garage stairs on the opposite side leg. Again, it's working all those stabilizer muscles in between from left to right. So working on the calf muscles is crucial to keeping ankle stability and overall balance. Top to bottom, calves are critical to our stability. Then activities such as tai chi or other flowing moving, whether martial arts, yoga there's a variety of activities we can participate in that demand and increase in balance.
Dave Sherwin:Okay, next let's talk about nutrition and supplements. There are two that are more critical than others to balance, as far as we know. One is vitamin D, which actually has a direct effect on balance. There's a lot of argument about vitamin D, something that we don't have to take it at all because it's in so many products. Some people think you need like 10,000 international units a day. I strongly disagree with that as a certified nutrition coach, because vitamin D is one of those that your body doesn't just pee out. If it has too much, it builds up and becomes toxic. We put 2,000 international units in our Mimi's Miracle Multi and every year when I get my blood work done, my vitamin D is perfect, and I think that 2,000 is a great number for almost everybody, and my personal blood work proves that out. Why don't you give that a shot yourself? And, of course, mimi's Miracle Multi has several other elements that are specifically designed for people as they age, to be a superior multi than those big box white capsules that really don't do much. The next one that's fairly big is omega-3 fatty acids, because there is evidence that improves vestibular function, so it directly helps your balance.
Dave Sherwin:For me, I don't like the deep sea fish, the deep. What am I trying to say here? Deep sea fish, deep fish, see, deep sea fish. Yeah, that's right, that's right. I don't like those. Ancestrally, our ancient ancestors were not able to access fish that lived a mile deep in the sea. They lived off of what they could find on the land, or small fish that they could catch in streams, rivers and shores, and so this one is plant-based, which your body knows what to do with plants, so check out PerfectOmega's at dirobycom, and those are probably the two that would help you most directly with balance.
Dave Sherwin:Next, let's talk about lifestyle modifications. Some of the things that are directly working against your balance are alcohol medications and we mentioned this one before your vision and so paying attention to those things, reducing alcohol and, if possible, taking as few medications as you need. I'm not giving medical advice here. This is something that you can work with your health professional to do, but in this modern day we're kind of hopefully getting past the point where multiple doctors prescribe multiple things and don't work with their clients to try to keep the medications down, and more and more practitioners are aware of the long-term harm caused by chronic drug use, and so ideally, by improving your lifestyle and working with a professional, you can make sure you're taking the minimal effective dose of the medications that you actually need.
Dave Sherwin:So I hope this episode has been interesting, because if you are over about the age of 40, there's a very good chance that your balance is deteriorating and you may not be paying attention, as I was not, and discovered in a CrossFit class several years ago. Since then I've changed my activities, I've become aware of balance and have worked on it, and I do not have that sense of balance that I had as a teen, but it's certainly better than a lot of people my age. I notice a lot of people do not have balance. I see people stumbling, struggling to get in and out of cars and just a variety of day-to-day things. As you get older start to become a little harder if you don't have a good sense of balance, and this is one of the top things we can do to increase our longevity.
Dave Sherwin:So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Remember we put show notes and graphics and fun stuff on our blog at blogdiorobicom. Also, remember that you can use the code podcast to save 10% on any of these supplements ever mentioned on this show. Until next time, this is Dave Sherwin, wishing you health and success.