town Seniors

The Art ')f Aging

Take steps to avoid life-threatening falls and gain better balance.

Ruthan Brodsky { Contributing Writer

he longer we live the more likely we
are to have a serious fall, according
to data compiled by national health
agencies. It makes sense then that as more
of us are living longer the number of falls
by seniors 60 and older has also increased
resulting in serious injuries and fatalities.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), more than
2.4 million people over the age of 65 were
treated at emergency rooms for injuries
from falls in 2012. More than 720,000
of these patients were hospitalized and
201,000 of them died following their fall.
The direct medical costs of falls in 2012
was more than $30 billion. Interestingly,
most people don't want to hear about falls,
and people who fall don't want to talk about
it. In fact, more than half never tell their
doctor about the incident, which makes
their health care even more uncertain
because falls may be a symptom of many
medical disorders. Falls, of course, may also
cause additional health problems.
"As the number of health risks rise, so
does the risk of falling," says Dr. Ronald
Taylor, M.D., chair, physical medicine and
rehabilitation, Beaumont Health System.
"Many falls are linked to a person's physical
condition or medical problem such as a
chronic disease. The primary care physi-
cian is the first person to contact when you
want to find out why your mother has fallen
several times during the past month."
According to Taylor, medical factors may
include:
• Blurred vision from cataracts or poor vi-
sion in general;

• A medication that could cause dizziness;
• Heart rhythm problems (heart arrhyth-
mias), which cause the heart to beat too
fast, too slow or irregularly;
• Peripheral neuropathy, a result of nerve
damage, which often causes weakness,
numbness and pain, usually in the hands
and feet;

• Diabetic neuropathy, nerve damage

6 BOOM Magazine • February 2015

Sharry and Bernie Friedman of West Bloomfield took a fall prevention/balancing class together.

that may occur with diabetes. High
blood sugar tends to injure nerve fibers
throughout the body; diabetic neuropa-
thy most often damages nerves in the
legs and feet.
• Nerve damage due to kidney disease,
which results in the signals from the brain
not being able to reach the right muscles.

Over time, this can lead to atrophy or
wasting away of the muscle, warns the
National Kidney Foundation. Affected
muscles may become weak and the re-
flexes may be impaired or absent. Activi-
ties such as climbing stairs and getting in
and out of a chair become more difficult.
If the muscles of the arms are weak, grip

