I want to stop the falling...

Someone I love recently fell.

He is 80 years old and lives with his loving and devoted wife. He was home and just had a small accident, he tripped and fell. When he fell, he hurt his arm, his doctor gave him some meds to help with the pain. The meds also made him very drowsy and he fell again, this time breaking his arm. When I went to see him, I didn't see the broken arm or the bruises on his face.

I saw a broken spirit.

When we walked alone to his home, he explained that the fall was far scarier then he expected and left him afraid to move.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that one in five falls causes a serious injury such as a broken bone or head injury. Fear of falling can also seriously affect an aging adult’s quality of life and sadly, can keep a person from being active and thriving.

Falls are a common, but often overlooked, cause of injury. Around one in three adults over 65 who live at home will have at least one fall a year, and about half of these will have more frequent falls.

So, many seniors and family caregivers are interested in fall prevention because the risks are so great. There are many reasons that aging adults fall. Most older people will be falling due to their own unique combination of reasons.

Why a fall happens

Why does a fall happen? Fundamentally, no matter who you are and what age you are here’s why:

Challenge to balance or strength > Ability to stay upright”

In other words, we fall when we experience some kind of event that challenges our balance or strength. If this event overwhelms our ability to remain upright, down we go.

When we’re young and healthy, we tend to have lots of ability to stay upright. So if we stumble, we can often catch ourselves and recover before we fall. But of course, a big enough knock off-balance will send even a 23-year-old sprawling. And if that 23-year-old happens to be tipsy, it will take even less of a trigger to provoke a fall.

Illness or weakness is another situation that will reduce anyone’s ability to stay upright. Lately, I have been falling a lot, thank you MS, and I have seen my wife fall ( Doctors tell her, that her feet are too flexible) it scares me.

This is why people of all ages are prone to fall in the hospital and did you know official figures show that in the year ending October 2012, there were 208,720 falls in NHS hospitals in England. But of course, older adults often have many other things going on which affect their ability to stay on their feet.

All doctors who see patients with degenerative joints advise their patients to keep active and keep those joints moving. Since the evolution of human beings, the movement has always been a part of our lifestyle, to say the least. Take for example the Stone Age, you were either a prey or a predator, which means in order to survive, you had to move.

There were no butcheries or retail stores - man had to go out and look for food. This involved lots of movement. Cases of obesity, which are rampant these days, were unheard of back then. This is because, with all this movement and exercise, man was able to maintain certain body fitness.

If you are a starter, entrepreneur or just a modern worker who spends most of the time sitting down, I have no good news for you. Our bodies are built on movement and exercise. Therefore, sitting all day answering and sending emails and binge-watching your favorite Netflix shows is not helping you one bit and here’s why.

Studies into body and movement have shown that people, who spend most of the day seated, either at work or at home, face the risk of:

Having a low metabolism.

Increasing the chances of back pain.

A drop in the levels of healthy cholesterol

Cardiovascular diseases which are associated with obesity.

Organ damage, brain damage.

Developing posture problems.

Muscle degeneration.

Leg disorders such as viscous veins and weak bones.

The Importance of Body Movement

Increase Your Body Strength – Body strength is measured by the amount of load that can be held. The only way in which your body can develop strength is through movement of the muscles. What better way than through fitness and exercise. In order to build muscle strength, you have to engage your muscles through exercises such as running (jogging), lifting weights and yoga.

Prevent Insomnia – It goes without saying that binge-watching or surfing the internet for long periods makes you inactive. Inactivity and sleep (ironically) do not go well together and you might have a hard time finding sleep at night. Workouts such as yoga have been seen to reduce levels of anxiety, which means you are able to find sleep faster and for longer periods.

Mood Enhancement – When your body is moving, endorphins (the feel-good neurotransmitters) are released. This means that exercise and can go a long way in improving an individual’s mood.

The Other benefits of body movement include;

Healthy body weight.

Improved metabolism (Digestion).

Disease prevention.

Strong body immunity.

Increase in bone density.

Cardiovascular health.

Stress reduction.

Pain management.

Body rehabilitation.

The most universal and basic of all fears, across all cultures, is the fear of falling. Behavioral research has established that babies are born with only two natural fears. One is a fear of certain noises and the other is the fear of falling. Over time people do develop other fears. Many can become critical problems that disable normal functioning. On the other hand, most people can also overcome their fears and learn to cope with them. Learning to deal with the fear of falling can establish an important sense of confidence that often will translate into the ability to deal with other fears.

The earliest and most primal fear we experience is falling, but most people have many opportunities to fall and realize at a young age that they can survive. Recreation and sports activities can accelerate that level of acceptance. Activities as diverse as gymnastics, football, hiking, and skateboarding provide plenty of opportunities, but no activity deals with the fear of falling so directly and positively as Judo.

My grandfather was a Judo player and he taught me so much about balance and strength. In classes around the world, this is typically the first thing Judo teachers focus on with new students. Before anyone can be expected to participate in any sports activity involving physical contact or falling, they should develop certain skills and learn to overcome their fears so they can feel comfortable falling. Yet Judo is unique among sports and martial arts in the way it incorporates a scientific approach to the methods of falling called ukemi. Ukemi is about receiving the fall gracefully.

In judo and life this is important so that you can rise up to continue the struggle.

We learn that you can benefit from the lesson of the fall rather than suffer from it. Falling in judo teaches us to get to acceptance quickly. We must not deny that we were thrown, dwell on it, feel angry or depressed about it, or try to justify it. We must accept it as a lesson and move on before we are pinned where we lie.

Sure we try to avoid the setback, and we understand the potential danger of a fall, but we learn to accept it in a way that does not paralyze us. In fact it frees us to take risks and show more courage and commitment in our actions. It allows us to remain in control of our future and not give in to unfortunate circumstances.

In the meantime for the aged you love, I hope this helps:

6 STEPS TO PREVENT A FALL

If you think this may help someone, please share. If you have fallen lately or know someone who has I would love to hear your story.

If you think I missed something and need to know about a system that already helps, please do let me know.

Thank you