Mild Dementia And Senior Balance Exercises

Senior Balance Exercises For Mild Dementia

By Suzanne Stoke, Physical Therapist @ Exercise For Balance via www.exerciseforbalance.com

 Dementia is a common diagnosis among older adults and helping those folks practice senior balance exercises will build their stability and minimize their risk for falling. Please see more information at   http://www.exerciseforbalance.com/buy-now Presently, there are seventy known types of dementia. In the global population, it is estimated that 35 million people have been diagnosed with some type of dementia. Dementia can occur along a continuum form mild, moderate to severe symptoms. Typically, individuals with mild dementia will have some decreased orientation for time, but they are oriented to person and place. Their memory is usually decreased for recent events (anything novel) and they often misplace objects. Individuals with mild dementia do have the ability to reminisce, and they have preserved procedural and habit memory.  For caregivers and medical professioanls, think about the fact that persons with dementia have impaired short term memory, which impacts recent events -- any directives, steps, instructions you provide them in the environment will be brand new for them. Anything that is new or novel in nature will be difficult.. Anyone who is working with cognitively impaired individuals who have a functional decline,  must be cognizant of the fact anything new for them will be challenging. Fortunately, we can often rely on their residual ability to reminisce. In other words, their long-term memories may be intact. If you want to target a certain task for physical therapy in a new environment, it is often helpful to know how they performed this task before in while they were in their natural environment. Often, they can tell you that because they will have intact long term memory to be able to reminisce and give you some background. They also have preserved habits, memory and procedural memory (things that we learn by doing), which includes gait. In regards to gait, walking is a complex movement pattern and older folks with dementia can have difficulty with the complex tasking of walking and will need to perform certain senior balance exercises to improve their steadiness with gait and other movement patterns.

 

Senior Balance Exercises For Safety

    Older adults who have been diagnosed with mild dementia are encouraged to rehearse senior balance exercises every day to enhance steadiness and reduce the risk of falling. Since folks with dementia have difficulties with sequencing of tasks, they often have poor balance with walking. Older individuals often stumble, catch their toe on a rug or step and can easily fall forwards, leading to a fractured wrist, shoulder or hip. In order to reduce the risk of falling, aging individuals can be proactive by practicing equilibrium routines that build a strong foundation of steadiness with movement patterns. As an example, people in the aging population can rehearse standing on one foot and swinging the other foot forwards and backwards, then side to side to perform a combination of static and dynamic balance program. Practicing this equilibrium routine will help strengthen the building blocks of steadiness, which can help to minimize the frequency of falls. You can learn how to perform this and other senior balance exercises by joining in with the demonstration of a qualified Physical Therapist in the Exercise For Balance DVD.

Senior Balance Exercises In The Exercise For Balance DVD

Learn balance exercises with the Exercise For Balance DVD

    For those with dementia, please get started on a course of the best balance exercises with the Exercise For Balance DVD. The healthcare provider recommended Exercise For Balance DVD is a high quality instructional DVD to use at home or in a group setting. The easy to understand and simple to follow Exercise For Balance DVD includes  a step by step series of the latest balance and strength exercises necessary to optimize senior fitness and to carry out basic daily activities like shopping, doing laundry,  walking, standing, cleaning house, stair climbing or to advance to more difficult pursuits like skiing, dancing, playing golf and hiking. In the  comprehensive Exercise For Balance DVD, you will learn how to improve stability, how to apply steadiness techniques and how to safely execute balance routines from a  qualified balance specialist --- licensed Physical Therapist---who has worked with balance and dizziness disorders for over 25 years. Get your copy of the Exercise For Balance DVD by clicking on the BUY NOW button

For better stability, start balance exercises today with the Exercise For Balance DVD to improve balance and prevent falls.
For more information see http://www.mayoclinic.com/health-information/