Mobility Teams And Senior Balance Exercises

Senior Balance Exercises For Moving Well

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

   Staying mobile and healthy is a critical component of healthy living for older adults and can be benefitted by participating in movement activities including physical fitness, leg strengthening routines and senior balance exercises. Please see more pertinent information at  http://www.exerciseforbalance.com/buy-now Health professionals in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and physical therapy clinics have been working tirelessly to find ways to keep older individuals from falling and injuring themselves. Fall prevention is an essential component of healthcare for many reasons. Falling and injuries from falls is damaging in many ways. Falls are incredibly expensive, costing several hundreds of millions of dollars in healthcare costs. Falls wreck havoc on the aging person's quality of life, limiting their mobility, stability, independence and overall health. Injuries from falling can lead to a hip or wrist fracture, surgery and possibly placement in a nursing home. To combat falling, hospitals in particular have set up extensive fall prevention programs. Lately, however, hospitals have come under fire for the methods they are using for fall prevention.  The JAMA recently published The 'False Dichotomy' of Hospital Falls Prevention vs Mobility Promotion. Hospitals that keep patients immobile as a way of preventing falls are engaging in a "false dichotomy" that can be damaging in the long-term, argue authors of a "Viewpoint" article published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine (preview only available for free). In fact, they write, programs that promote mobility with supervision "may actually help to prevent injurious falls" more effectively than those that encourage patients to stay in bed. Current federal payment policies penalize hospitals for certain hospital-acquired conditions, including falls resulting in injuries. While well-intended, these policies have had "unintended consequences" for patient mobility, function, and quality of life, according to authors Matthew E. Growdon, MD, MPH; Ronald I. Shorr, MD, MS; and Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH. Patient immobility contributes greatly to "post-hospital syndrome," in which patients are at risk for functional decline, adverse events, and readmission to the hospital. Instead, the authors advocate for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to "develop quality measures that promote mobility as part of routine clinical care"—including early mobilization protocols, documenting how often patients are out of bed, and use of patient accelerometers instead of bed or chair alarms to monitor patient movement. Despite widespread implementation of hospital falls-prevention efforts over the past 20 years, authors write, evidence shows the rate of "injurious falls" has not declined significantly in the United States. As result, medical researchers as well as healthcare providers suggest at aging individuals perform certain senior balance exercises on a daily basis to boost their balance abilities.

Senior Balance Exercises To Prevent Falls

    Medical researchers have shown that regular routines of strengthening and balance exercises enhance overall steadiness and diminishes the potential of falling.  Since Falls among the elderly represent a major economic and social problem, Falls themselves and the belief that one might fall in fall-risk situations can result in restriction of mobility and activity, feelings of helplessness, loss of confidence, depression, and institutionalization. There is now good evidence that multifactorial interventions conducted by health professionals with skills in geriatric medicine can prevent falls. Multifaceted interventions have generally been consistent in showing an effect, particularly if they are targeting persons at risk and include several intervention approaches, including equilibrium exercises such as single leg standing and tandem walking and lower leg strengthening exercises like calf raises and squats. You can learn these specific senior balance exercises and appropriate leg strengthening routines by following the direction of an experienced Physical Therapist in the Exercise For Balance DVD.

Senior Balance Exercises In The Exercise For Balance DVD

    To prevent falls, 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

Stand tall and 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/