Weekly Positive Spin Post

 

Kicking off weekly points to ponder to help you put a positive spin on your outlook. Inspired by the many GyroStim patients who persevere no matter what.


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Addressing the Epidemic of Falls in the Elderly Population

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            Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for people aged 65 and over (Allen, 2018). Most of these falls are associated with balance problems; most balance problems result from issues within the vestibular system (Mayo Clinic, 2020).           T he number of falls continues to rise each year as life expectancy continues to increase (Ortman, 2014, Phillips, 2020). In 2018, over 32,000 deaths and over 8 million injuries resulted from falls among the 65+ population in the U.S. (Moreland et al., 2020). To put the significance of falls into perspective, falls account for more than four times the number of people 65 and older who died from automobile accidents during the same year (CDC Injury Center, 2018). According to the CDC, “If deaths from falls continue to increase at the same rate, the U.S. can expect 59,000 older adults will die because of a fall in 2030. (Allen, 2018)”. Additionally, t...
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It's Not Counter-intuitive; It's Science

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  As you might imagine, we get a lot of comments from people who think that rotation is counter-intuitive to addressing a balance or dizziness problem. However, the opposite is actually true. VEDA (Vestibular Disorders Association) problems a helpful description of just what is happening when you engage in balance training exercises: How do balance retraining exercises speed recovery? "Recovering from dizziness is exactly the same as getting your sea legs. At first being at sea makes people unsteady and sick, but if you stay at sea then gradually the brain learns to cope with the new balance, signals from the eyes, body and balance organs, and the sickness disappears. In the same way, the brain can gradually overcome dizziness and imbalance due to a change in the way the balance system is working, following injury or illness. But your system can only learn to cope with the new balance signals if you practice the activities which cause dizziness. Balance retraining exercises ...
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BEYOND BALANCE: The Vestibular / Sensorimotor Connection

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Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change or adapt both physically and functionally throughout life. It is the change in morphology of neurons in response to various internal and external stimuli. “Let us assume that the persistence or repetition of a reverberatory activity (or "trace") tends to induce lasting cellular changes that add to its stability.[…] When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A's efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased." ---Donald Hebb, 1949 The Organization of Behavior   Current knowledge of neuroplasticity suggests that it is possible to intentionally induce morphological changes in the brain with strategies involving goal-directed experiential activities.   These strategies involve repetitious stimulation of the sensorimotor system to provide the brain wit...
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