A new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic says that your ability to balance on your nondominant leg could reveal whether you are at risk of falling.
The study concluded that an individual’s ability to balance diminishes more quickly as we age, compared to walking gait, grip, and knee strength. The findings may help us identify people who are at risk of falling earlier.
Despite being preventable, falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older, The Dallas Express reported. Each year, more than 14 million Americans in this demographic, roughly 25% of the group, report falling. More than one-third of those falls require medical treatment or lead to a restriction for at least one day.
Kenton Kaufman, the study’s senior author and a musculoskeletal research professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says the ability to maintain balance on one leg provides “an important predictor” of someone’s risk.
“If you have poor balance, you’re more likely to fall,” says Kaufman.
To conduct the study, the researchers examined 40 healthy and independent individuals over 50, half of whom were under 65 and the other half over 65. The participants underwent walking, balance, grip, and knee strength tests.
The researchers found a correlation between a lower ability to maintain balance and an elevated risk of falls.
If you are curious to see if you are at risk, try timing how long you can remain balanced on your nondominant leg. Dr. Kaufman says you are doing well if you remain standing for 30 seconds. Fortunately, even if you cannot stay balanced for that long, you can work towards improving your time through practice.
“If you don’t use it, you lose it. If you use it, you maintain it… It’s easy to do. It doesn’t require special equipment, and you can do it every day,” says Dr. Kaufman.