Falls are a serious, immediate, and long-term health risk. Factors related to falls include advanced age, stroke, brain injury, changes in vision, joint surgeries, medication side-effects, weakness, dehydration, low-blood pressure, neurological disease (such as Parkinson’s disease), and others. At Dry Creek Physical Therapy you can expect to receive one-on-one care specific to your unique balance needs.
The risk of falls increases proportionately with age: about 1/3 of the population over the age of 65 falls each year. At 80 years, over half of seniors fall annually.
How Can Physical Therapy Help Reduce Fall Risk?
Physical therapists work individually with patients on balance training, strength and stability, and mobility exercises in order to decrease risk of falling. They also address home safety strategies in order to help patients make their home or living space more accommodating to their physical limitations.
The Biodex Balance and Mobility System
One new technology that is especially helpful for our patients is the Biodex Balance and Mobility System. Physical therapists use this unique device to assess neuromuscular control by quantifying a patient’s ability to maintain stability on a static or unstable surface.
Exercise on the Balance System helps patients reduce fall risk in addition to treating a wide variety of pathologies; it can help improve balance, increase agility, and develop muscle tone. The system’s test protocols include fall risk, limits of stability, and postural stability. Consequently, training on this device may also provide a degree of compensation for impaired reflex mechanisms following injury.
The Balance System captures Fall Risk Test results and compares them to the performance of age-matched, functionally-fit individuals so as to offer a more accurate analysis. From this information, the physical therapist creates a treatment plan unique to the patient that will help to strengthen weaker muscles and decrease fall risk.
We Can Help You Balance Better
If you feel weak, dizzy, lightheaded, have a history of falling, or want to prevent falls and other health complications in the future, come and see us! Our therapists are specially trained to help you improve your quality of life.