The Science Behind Falls

 In our previous blog we talked about a fall prevention solution that was about telesitters. In this blog, I would like to inform briefly about the science behind falls and why it often occurs in elderly people more than younger people. 

When we are young, our bodies are more dynamic and our reflexes are strong. We can prevent ourselves from falling once we stumble or lose balance. This is because our cognitive part of our brain is more responsive to threats therefore we prevent it when we lose our balance. Let's say you had a little too much to drink and your brain has slowed down, and it's less likely to respond to a threat in time when you lose your balance. This is almost similar to the general idea of why elderly people fall more often than younger people does. Not that older people drink more obviously, but because their reflexive and responsive part of their brains slow down as they age.

You might think about how can you help your grandma or grandpa or even your elder self in the future against falling? There are many ways to prevent falls as I explained in detail in my previous blogs. There are also ways to not just preventing it from happening now, but also in the future. In the meantime, you can help a relative from falling by removing any obstacles that might get in their way or get them help with physical therapy. Physical therapy is another way that is found to be helpful with conditioning the brain and the body against falls. In my next blog, I will be talking in more detail about how physical therapy works and determines how someone is at risk of falling, and helps them to condition their brains and bodies to prevent falls.