Regain Your Balance Now, Here is How

Over the past several months, we have been discussing imbalance, dizziness, vertigo, disequilibrium, etc., how to find out if you are at risk, etc. We know that as part of the natural aging process individuals will become more prone to imbalance associated with changes in the spinal joints from degenerative joint disease, and the disturbances in the ocular reflexes which are pre-programmed to the spinal movements. These disturbances can also lead to anxiety, changes in respiratory dynamics and changes in the digestive system as these systems are all hard wired and linked together, thus changes in one system affect the others systems as well. Changes in breathing dynamics alone are probably responsible for half of the dizziness in society. These changes not only create anxiety and panic disorder, but will eventually lead to a permanent change in your systemic pH, which can lead to all sorts of problems.

The good news is that these disturbances are not only reversible, but are actually quite easy to fix. Inappropriate ocular reflexes are corrected through appropriate eye exercises, which are orchestrated to strengthen the specific ocular weaknesses, which need to be addressed. This alone typically improves imbalance and disequilibrium immediately. Breathing dynamics can easily be corrected by increasing rib excursion and thus increasing lung vital capacity. This will immediately reverse aberrant changes in systemic pH, any panic disorder induced from such, gastric problems, which may be associated, etc.

Inasmuch as these problems are quite reversible and easily fixed, it is certainly with an understanding that treatment is provided under the guidance of a health care provider adequately trained in treating problems associated with imbalance and postural and gait abnormalities.

It is unfortunate that the vast majority of balance problems go unnoticed and untreated when they are easiest to correct, as most individuals don't appreciate that they even have a problem because they do not take the time to get screened. Society has been trained over time to obtain routine blood work, and other "routine" and "preventative" screening procedures, because we know that if we do not have them, we may miss something that would have been easy to fix had it been diagnosed early on but was ignored because no screening was ever done. Balance screening is no exception to this. Simply put, the longer you wait, the longer it will take to fix, and the more likely you will incur a fall and thus have a serious injury to overcome. I have mentioned several times in my column that you cannot tell if your balance is impaired without screening. If you can tell, it is only because it has already gotten so severe that it becomes apparent just standing or while walking about. If this is the case, not doing anything about it is like being diabetic and not taking your medication and not changing your diet. It will just be a matter of time.