Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Folks who suffer from balance, issues of risk, of falling, which can lead to serious injuries.

As we age, our balance declines and the potential for falls becomes more acute.

Even younger people can face balance problems from different medical conditions or injuries.

Here to help us balance it all out is our own Grover Silcox.

Grover, always wonderful to see you.

Great to be here, Brit.

A little fun play on words for a very serious issue.

That's right.

Actually, losing one's balance can be very risky.

The CDC reports that one in five falls leads to severe injury, primarily broken bones and head injury.

And you're right, a balance does decline with age.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, there are an estimated 36 million falls every year among folks who are age 65 and up.

And that can be a scary situation.

Is there any way to combat it or kind of lower your risk for falling?

Medical experts tell us that there are lots of ways to improve balance and prevent falls.

I visited with one of Lehigh Valley Health Network's outpatient rehabs to speak with a physical therapist and his patient to learn more.

What did they have to say?

they gave me a lot of insights.

According to the experts with whom I spoke.

First, it's important to recognize that you have a balance issue.

If you do feel unsteady for whatever reason, and especially if you've had a fall or near fall because your balance is off, see your doctor and get it checked out.

I met a physical therapist and observed him guiding a patient through a variety of rehab activities using advanced technology and traditional methods.

It was pretty amazing to watch.

59 year old Jeff Hall works hard on his balance and ability to walk.

At one of Lehigh Valley Health Networks outpatient rehabs, you don't realize how challenging it can be when you can't do things that you want to do in 2022.

Surgeons at the Mayo Clinic performed a biopsy on a tumor wrapped around Jeff's spine.

They wanted to determine treatment options.

The procedure was successful, but he lost feeling in his left leg as a result.

I walked into the Mayo Clinic and I couldn't walk out based on where they where they worked.

My left leg was numb.

And it's not that I don't have some feeling in it.

You know, if you touch my leg, I know you're touching it, but I didn't know where it was in space.

As a staff member of the U.S.

Golf Association, Jeff's office, as he puts it, tends to be a golf course.

So this impairment presented a major hurdle in doing his job and myriad other activities.

Eager to overcome this obstacle, Jeff began working with Colin Ellis, a physical therapist specializing in neurological issues at LVHN.

Jeff and I have worked together for the better part of a year and a half now, trying to recover Jeff's mobility.

Essentially, his balance and his gait don't hold sway.

It is absolutely a team effort.

I appreciate the constant energy and enthusiasm, the encouragement that, you know, kicked me in the tail when required, told me not to take unnecessary risks.

Jeff has made steady progress from his weekly hourlong sessions at the rehab.

Our therapy has been intensive and very patient centric to try and get him back to the things he likes to do activities on the yard.

Maintaining his home.

He's a budding fly fisherman, I'll tell you.

And his role with the USGA, which is being at the golf course and you're logging steps.

It's been a joy for me clinically because of Jeff's willingness to partake in really high intensity training.

Balance involves the whole body, but especially the visual, inner ear and sensory systems.

That coupled with the musculoskeletal system, joints and muscle, means your bones create these complex reactions in a direct result to some of those external demands of being mobile and being active and upright.

Colin Has Jeff use a mix of methods to improve his balance and stability.

There's been a huge push for the use of virtual reality in patients that have impairments, in their walking impairments and their balance.

It creates these situations simulating the demands of being mobile in the real world, but again, doing it under very controlled circumstances.

This interactive treadmill among only a few in the region, simulates a virtual outdoor environment in compasses, a couple of different features.

There's a force plate that collects data, takes measurements in terms of step length and weight distribution.

There's a projector we can project obstacles onto the treadmill so the patient can interact with an obstacle that actually has a potential for tripping them.

There's a harness system to keep them upright with body weight support as needed for patients that are unable to walk.

And then there's also an interactive screen so that the patient can be visually engaged in a virtual environment.

It's challenging.

That's why I'm here.

Let's go skiing.

Super.

The challenges keep coming.

Next up, Jeff tests his balance on the slopes with the Virtualis system.

It's a wearable headset that creates virtual environments.

And then we can station the patient on a sort of a force plate that measures sway patterns or can create intentional changes in the base of support.

And then we can measure how the patient reacts to that.

So we're very much about immersion here, putting the patient in a situation that would never choose to put themselves in and then letting them kind of figure it out.

I want you to see this gradually.

We use some of the basic classic tools as well.

Things that change the compliance, see the surface underneath the patient.

Tweaked for lack of a better word, to to create more natural challenges that you'd have to encounter on the real world, according to Jeff.

He's had a few falls.

I have had a few falls.

Some when I was fishing.

I've had a couple at home where again, trying to be a little more independent that maybe I should be getting on my stationary bike.

Fortunately, Jeff's falls were minor, but falling remains a serious issue in general, and especially for folks over 65.

So what risks do we have as we age?

And those are things such as increased dizziness, decrease in our balance, some of the medications that we take.

So as we age, we're more likely to be put on those blood pressure medications that can cause our blood pressure to drop, causing an increase in fall risk.

Our overall general health and wellness strength in our muscles decrease as we age and feet problems, things like that that can affect our stability.

LVHN and offers educational programs for patients at risk for falling.

And a lot of that is tailored towards our geriatric patients that have a high risk of falls.

So we do inpatient and outpatient education on fall prevention.

Colin and his team encourage people who are feeling unsteady or who have fallen or risk falling to seek advice from their doctor.

Get some baseline measurements, see how your balance stacks up against your peers.

We have a lot of age appropriate ID tests that we can put a patient through and say, You know, at your age you should be able to do this task in this amount of time.

I don't want patients to think that it's just maintenance.

Measurable improvements are very, very realistic for most individuals.

Jeff Hall is back at his job and working out every day.

He keeps improving step by step.

And as he might say, the proof is in the putting.

All of this work has helped and the work that I do at home.

I start my day off 60 Minutes at least every day with various exercises that, again, Colin and I have worked through to continue what we do here According to the CDC Web site, more than 800,000 patients, a year are hospitalized because of a fall injury, most often because of a head injury or a hip fracture.

Jeff says he's come a long way since he and Colin started working together.

He's got a ways to go, but he's determined to reach his goal.

And Colin and his colleagues want people to know that no matter what your age, you can improve your balance, especially if there's a risk of falling.

Grover your report's really reassuring.

It just shows us that there's so much that physicians and physical therapists can do to really help patients improve their balance and, you know, mitigate that fall risk.

Absolutely.

As Colin and Jennifer and college patient Jeff mentioned in the piece that I did.

Yes, there are lots of ways to improve your balance and prevent falls and those injuries that can occur as a result.

It can be really scary, especially as an adult when you fall.

Right.

And so the first thing is recognize you do have a balance problem, even if you've only fallen once or even felt like you were going to fall.

Consult your physician.

Get an expert opinion.

Really good advice.

Grover, as always, thank you so much for sharing that information.

My pleasure.

That'll do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, helping you stay happy and healthy.