Excellent info and links; thank you Jen. Having absorbed and implemented what you've learned, are there now significantly longer intervals between the many falls you earlier mentioned as having experienced each year? Or are they still happening, and with cumulative spinal damage as measured via radiology imaging?
Arnaldo
My neighbor who lives across the street has fallen numerous times in the last year. We both have big dogs, which contributes to the falls as well when walking, and we are both senior citizens. The last fall, she injured her back. She went to several doctors, one of whom wanted to perform surgery on her disk. Apparently, one of her lower-back disks slipped out a little. She went to another doctor for a second opinion, who sent her to a sports doctor. The sports doctor recommended strength training and building up the muscle around that lower-back disk as well as going to physical therapy. She did this and the back is better now. No surgery needed, thank goodness. Strength training, exercise, and muscle building seems to be helpful with older people.
I am much more careful now when I walk my dog. I have fallen several times, but I now make sure I walk on level pavement, not in the woods where I trip over exposed tree trunks, and I have good walking shoes, which really helps. I still have moments where I almost fall, but I have been fortunate to catch myself before falling. It's a scary feeling. I've never had falling scares like this when I was younger.
The other morning, I speeded up my gait. I walked 5,000 steps in 45 minutes. It usually takes me 60 minutes to do 5,000 steps. Gait speed slows down when we age, so now that I know this, I am trying to not get too much slower. I just watched a movie with 91-year-old Clint Eastwood, "Cry Macho," and you can see how old age has affected his gait. His posture is not good. Bad posture can also affect gait speed, which results in falls.
