stop old people from falling.....go barefoot?

My work is too busy at the moment for me to do much on this blog, but I am still keeping an eye on news and research.

This study popped up last week and I thought it had some interesting implications.

Altering gait by way of stimulation of the plantar surface of the foot: the immediate effect of wearing textured insoles in older fallers

Conclusions - Stimulating the plantar surface of the foot by way of wearing this type of textured insole causes an immediate effect - in this case a slower, more cautious gait in older fallers. Further work is required to determine how textured insoles can be used to improve gait in older fallers.

The whole study is there for you to look through.

Anyway, what this made me think of was the value of being barefoot.  So much information comes from the feet, from the sole.  While shod, all that information is blunted.  Barefoot there is so much more stimulation and data that can be processed by the brain to feed into the proprioceptive system.

Textured insoles are just a "stepping stone" to being barefoot.  If they can help to prevent falls, maybe being barefoot....on rough rich surfaces...could do even more

Flamingo on the bus

I actually do this on the bus......

From nano workout....

The Flamingo is a balance exercise you can do if you find yourself standing on an unstable platform such as on a train, bus or in an elevator.

It couldn’t be more simple to do. Just lift one leg slightly and try to keep your balance without holding on to something. Public transportation are rarely known for providing a smooth ride so you are in for a challenge, but if you for some reason think it’s too easy then try to close your eyes while still standing on one leg.

You will get a great balance exercise and also strengthen the muscles on your lower legs.

Balance Training

Balance is fascinating.  On Clarence Bass recommendation a couple of year ago I read Scott McCredie’s book Balance: In Search of the Lost Sense (2007).  It is really interesting and gives you a new appreciation for the importance of balance.

In Hillfit I mention balance as a complex of three different systems:

• the visual
• the proprioceptive
• the vestibular - the inner ear sense that positions you in space relative to gravity, your equilibrium

 One of the key things in balance in general I say is to be stronger - sometimes the muscles are not strong enough to maintain balance whatever the systems are saying.

I've mentioned the proprioceptive systems before in terms of ankle sprains.  Anyway, all that is just introduction to this study which I found today.

Vestibular rehabilitation therapy: review of indications, mechanisms, and key exercises.

Vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) is an exercise-based treatment program designed to promote vestibular adaptation and substitution. The goals of VRT are 1) to enhance gaze stability, 2) to enhance postural stability, 3) to improve vertigo, and 4) to improve activities of daily living. VRT facilitates vestibular recovery mechanisms: vestibular adaptation, substitution by the other eye-movement systems, substitution by vision, somatosensory cues, other postural strategies, and habituation. The key exercises for VRT are head-eye movements with various body postures and activities, and maintaining balance with a reduced support base with various orientations of the head and trunk, while performing various upper-extremity tasks, repeating the movements provoking vertigo, and exposing patients gradually to various sensory and motor environments. VRT is indicated for any stable but poorly compensated vestibular lesion, regardless of the patient's age, the cause, and symptom duration and intensity. Vestibular suppressants, visual and somatosensory deprivation, immobilization, old age, concurrent central lesions, and long recovery from symptoms, but there is no difference in the final outcome. As long as exercises are performed several times every day, even brief periods of exercise are sufficient to facilitate vestibular recovery. Here the authors review the mechanisms and the key exercises for each of the VRT goals.

The whole paper is available here 
  with some interesting simple exercises to  develop this amazing sense.