Exercises can slow decline of balance

LITTLE ROCK — Adults take balance for granted, right? You cross the office floor without stumbling, take out the trash and return unscathed, step in and out of the shower without incident.

And then one day, seemingly without warning, you waver. "It isn't until we lose that ability that we realize how important these things are," says Chhanda Dutta, chief of the clinical gerontology branch of the National Institute on Aging.

Falls among older people are common, costly and debilitating. More than one-third of people 65 and older will fall this year. But younger people can lose their balance, too.

Your ability to stay upright and move confidently through space is determined by a complex combination of muscle strength, nerve function, visual inputs, the vestibular function of your inner ear and your proprioception - the work of sensors, including nerves in the soles of your feet, that orient you in relation to other objects. These abilities can decline with age, although people age differently.

Loss of balance and mobility can be prevented or delayed if we work at keeping these abilities sharp. But doing so requires deliberately putting ourselves into situations where balance is a challenge: Few exercise regimens do that as a routine. Those that do include yoga, karate, tai chi and balance training.

Dutta says people should start such efforts in their 20s or 50s, not their 80s. Balance exercises are quick, easy and effective, she says, even if researchers don't entirely understand how the body rewires itself to yield such improvements. They can be done with or without specialized equipment, depending on how advanced you are. When starting out, it is wise to do them near a chair or a wall so you can steady yourself if need be.

A few examples:

Stand on one foot. You can do this anywhere, anytime. Do it while brushing your teeth. Or waiting around. The National Institute on Aging recommends that older people hold the pose for up to 10 seconds, and repeat it 10 or 15 times before switching to the other foot and doing the same.

Heel-toe walk: Take 20 steps while focusing on a spot ahead of you.

Stand, sit or kneel on a BOSU half-ball, a piece of exercise equipment with a hard, flat bottom and an air-filled, rounded platform.