Falls and Fractures

Falls cause an astonishing amount of difficulty for older individuals. Falls may result from frailty, slowed reaction time, lack of conditioning, poor vision, poor hearing, presence of medical disease, or a whole variety of different problems that are common in older people. The key is to think of the impact as well as the fall. (It isn’t the falling that is the problem; it is hitting the ground.) This means that you have to think about your environment as well as about your physical condition.

Prevention

Certainly, you want strong bones; the approach to preventing osteoporosis has been outlined above. You want your body to be as strong as possible, and this entails all of the principles described throughout this blog. Then you need to consider the dangers in your environment. Loose throw rugs, absence of good lighting, failure to use non-skid tape in the bathtub, absence of hand rails in difficult places, and other such factors are very important. What about your vision? Think through a typical day, imagine those places where it is most likely that you might fall, and make a plan to reduce the danger. Go through the same process for each person with whom you live – if they break something, it will decrease the quality of your life.