That first step can be deadly
BROADWAY With her eyes fixated on a computer screen mounted in front of her, Marianne Snell leans forward, then back, then side-to-side as she maneuvers her way through a virtual maze.
A red “x” responds to her every move as she guides it around corners toward a red circle. Once she finishes, Snell moves through another maze, and another, until the man in the white lab coat tells her to stop.
The interactive video game is an important part of her therapy as Snell, a retired physical education teacher, looks to regain her balance, and in a way, her freedom.
“It’s a terrible thing,” said the 73-year-old, alluding to inner ear problems that cause her to become disoriented at times. “I used to be a very athletic person and then I started losing control over my own body. It’s a terrible feeling to walk and not feel connected to the ground. It’s like you’re floating and you have no way of getting down.”
For the elderly, the fear of falling is very real. Recent statistics show that if a person over the age of 75 falls, they have a 50 percent chance of dying within 12 months. Falls are the leading cause of injury deaths for Americans over the age of 65 and they account for more than 70 percent of accidental deaths for those over 75.
Falls are the leading cause of doctor visits, hospital admissions and emergency room visits.
Since suffering a bad fall last year while walking her dog along Ocean Front Walk, Snell has been visiting the rehabilitation center CliniCare three times a week for treatment, which consists of traditional exercises like walking on a treadmill or jumping on a mini trampoline, as well as using computers and infrared goggles to test eye reflexes.
“I’ve made a lot of improvement,” Snell said. “I’m still very concerned about falling, and my mother, who is 95, that’s her biggest fear. At this age, there’s a high chance of breaking your hip. You have to be very careful, and with this treatment, I feel more confident.”
CliniCare is one of the few medical groups in Santa Monica set up to provide balance therapy for seniors. Using a computer-assisted system known as FallTrak, doctors are more able to diagnose dizziness and recommend treatment.
The FallTrak equipment that makes balance therapy possible has only recently become affordable enough for smaller clinics to implement into their practice, said Alex Kaliakin, a chiropractor and director of CliniCare Santa Monica.
“What most people aren’t aware of is that fear of falling and loss of balance is treatable,” Kaliakin said. “CliniCare’s goal is to teach patients to recover from imbalance and dizziness through proper training and rehabilitation.
“We know how difficult it can be to live with a fear of falling and we know that this fear can be debilitating.”
The annual cost of fall injuries incurred by the elderly is well over $20 billion and is estimated to increase to $32 billion in the next 20 years if no efforts are made to address the problem, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Many patients who have trouble with balance have inner ear problems like Snell. Others are just victims of old age, Kaliakin said.
“The older you get, the slower your central nervous system processes what our eyes see, making us less coor-dinated,” Kaliakin added.
Ultimately, the muscular-skeletal system starts to deteriorate. Many people get arthritis and their joints don’t function as they used to.
“I have a mantra, ‘Watch where you’re going,’” said Ruth Goldin, 85, a patient at CliniCare. “You really do have to pay attention where you’re going when you get older. You can’t have your head in the clouds.”
The Center for Healthy Aging in Santa Monica recommends that seniors be constantly aware of their surroundings and use a cane or walker whenever necessary, even if some might are embarrassed using some type of assistance.
“It is also very important to have the proper lighting in your home and to make sure paths to the bathroom or the kitchen are unobstructed,” said Sheila Segal, a marriage and family therapist and clinical coordinator for peer counseling at the center. “It is also important to have the right shoes. You need to get ones that don’t slide off your feet.”
While physical therapy can be grueling, depending on the type of injury, patients at CliniCare seemed to be having a blast while hopping up and down on a large rubber ball or doing leg lifts. They credit their enjoyment to the physicians at CliniCare, the entertaining video games and the interesting people who come for treatment.
“There are so many different characters who walk into this place,” said Taki Devian, who after suffering for months with vertigo, now walks through her home without bouncing off the walls. “It doesn’t even feel like exercise because you seem to always be talking with someone.
“I used to have to make an effort to be dizzy, but now I’m fine.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 25, 2007. Read the original PDF.