After the fall

The Youtube creators seem to be in agreement. After a certain age we mark time as "Before the fall" and "After the fall". Falling is never a grand thing. For many people, a fall results in a hospital stay and a big step-down in ability and independence.

Having nothing better to do, I am going to pretend to be an expert in falling.

Charles Page

Charles was one of my coffee drinking buddies and was in his mid-80. I was pulling into the Burger King and I saw him crossing the parking lot and he was almost to the door.

I gave a very short toot on the horn and watched him collapse in a heap like a fainting goat when they hear a semi set the air-brakes.

He extraordinarily cheerful about he event. "I fall once a week. You did me a favor. Today is Monday so I should be good until next week."

Then he told me "I learned a long time ago to fall like a bag of potatoes. Don't try to catch yourself, 'cause you will tear your rotator cuff or break your wrists. Just go down like all the strings holding your bones together got cut."

Sage advice from somebody who had lots of practice.

The physical attributes that make moving forward while upright

Obviously, it takes balance to stand upright. If you have been bed-ridden for an extended time, you lose the hang of it. You also get out-of-practice if you spend too many hours of the day sitting.

You can help yourself if you concentrate on carrying your weight mid-foot. Think of each foot as an old-fashioned roller-skate. You want equal weight on all eight wheels. That gives you maximum time to make corrections if you get bumped or hit by a bit of wind...regardless of the direction it comes from.

Intentionally balancing is something you can train yourself to do.

A sudden lack of balance points to underlying medical issues like an ear infection, low blood pressure when standing or even brain tumors. Seek medical attention if you experience sudden changes. 

Flexibility is also important. It is very tempting to over-correct if you don't have much flexibility OR you can severely strain a muscle or your back if you are not whippy enough.

There is no substitute for leg and core strength. Some falls are due to lose of traction and you don't want to do the splits. More strength means you have more ability to modulate your recovery response.

I believe that many broken hips (actually a fracture of the femur's trochantor) are due to a person with weak leg muscles panicking and taking the impact of stepping down with a locked knee. The shock of the impact runs right up the fibula and femur and the fusible link is the brittle trochantor.

Reaction time comes into play. Likely, more falls occur when we are tired and have slower reaction time. We start to topple and we don't process the fact until our fall is inevitable. I suggest that we avoid obstacle courses when we are tired.

As a side-note, if you know you are going to be in an environment with a higher risk of falling...say you are attending a party where you know the patio blocks are heaved...avoid the adult-beverages and avoid riding the merry-go-round. 

Mrs ERJ surprised me when she suggested vision is important. How many falls are caused by tripping on something that we didn't see. Maybe the room was dark. Maybe the wire was the same color as the tall grass. Maybe our bellican obscured our view of our feet and we missed the fact that there was one more step to the ladder.

Another way that vision comes into play is that it supplements the balance feedback from our inner-ears. Our eyes seek the horizon and provide our brain with supplemental information about the direction gravity should be acting in. 

Mrs ERJ's suggestion was to practice bending over and picking up items from the floor; even if it might be more efficient or easier to sweep them up or to use a "grabber". For one thing, it reduces slip-trip hazards. For another thing, it improves your flexibility and core-strength. 

And if all else fails, do a Charlie Page, pick a soft looking bit of asphalt and go limp. Strive to keep your noggin from denting the pavement, but other than that, go with the inevitable.