One of our most important jobs as therapists is to help our clients recognize common fall hazards in the home. Here we go over a few simple tips to help keep you safe in your home!

If you think you might benefit from a home safety assessment or have any further questions about home fall hazards please reach out to us. 

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One of the most common topics we discuss with our clients is knee osteoarthritis (OA). Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation, even from trusted medical professionals, on the treatment options for knee OA! 

No matter what the severity of knee OA is, anyone with OA can benefit from strengthening and mobility training. For everyone with arthritis, we assess skills like squatting, getting out of a chair, getting on and off the floor, and walking to start to detect muscle imbalances or irregular movement patterns. The treatment approach is simple- we treat what we find! For some people that might be treating muscle weakness with a strengthening program, focus on flexibility to improve mobility, or even changing footwear!

Watch the video above for more information on knee OA and reach out to us at info@balanceabc.org with any further questions! 

At Advanced Balance Clinic, we firmly believe that health is more than the absence of disease. Therefore, the core of our treatment philosophy involves addressing the areas of health that are easily overlooked but critical to improvement. Some medical providers have a lot to give to their clients in terms of technical knowledge and skills, but may not be great at making personal connections. However, there is so much more to be offered by trusting, caring relationships between clients and providers. We prioritize relationships and motivational support for our patients along with providing a healthy dose of education and knowledge. In our experience, we are fighting an uphill battle if we do not address mindset along with physical health.

In the clinic, we have 5 pillars of health we focus on with each and every client. True wellness involves looking at the person as a whole and guiding them to fulfillment in every area of life. We address each of the 5 pillars on a first visit with...

As the name of our business (Advanced Balance Clinic) implies, we spend a lot of our day working with those who have balance problems! So we are often asked to explain where balance problems might be coming from.

Balance is a complex interaction between your sensory systems, the brain, and your muscles. Your sense constantly take in information about your environment and how you are moving relative to your environment, they communicate this information with your brain, and your brain then tells your body how to move. Most of this happens without you realizing it until there is a balance problem! Read more about the balance systems here or watch the video above for further information.

A few simple screening tests and measures help us determine what is causing an individuals balance problem, and we then treat what we find! Some balance problems are caused by simple muscle weakness, whereas others might be due to vision problems or vertigo. If we are unable to treat the problem,...

As we covered in a previous story, one of the most critical steps toward better health is to identify your unique habit formation patterns. Health is built around a foundation of habits, however what works for one person often does not work for another.

In the last story, we explored the difference between abstainers and moderators for habit distinctions based on the work of Gretchen Rubin. Her work goes a step further and identifies four different habit tendencies. Identifying your unique tendency is key in setting yourself up for success.

Tendencies are Defined By Expectations

Each tendency is defined by what type of expectations they respond to.

Internal expectations: expectations imposed by the self. For example, New Years Resolutions.

External expectations: expectations others set for us. For example, traffic regulations or deadlines.

The Four Tendencies

Let’s define each tendency and describe how they play out in health habits. As you read, see if...

There is a common misconception that muscle weakness around a joint always causes pain within that joint. This could not be further from the truth! It is possible to have a weak and painful joint, but sometimes people also have pain when they are strong. Pain is often more complicated than faulty body mechanics or muscle weakness.

For the shoulder joint in particular, there are indicators outside of pain that point to muscle imbalances within the joint. These might include:

• Tight shoulders
• Shallow breathing
• Weak grip strength
• Numbness or tingling in the hands
• Muscle weakness in the forearm, elbow, or wrist
• A loss of shoulder motion

If you are experiencing any of these you could benefit from a shoulder strengthening program! Shoulders provide stability for use of the arm and hand, so shoulder joint health is very important. Consider seeing a physical or occupational therapist for an appropriate shoulder exercise progression based on your needs. 

One of the first skills we address with new patients is getting on and off the floor. In the event of a fall, this can be a life-saving skill! But there are also many benefits of getting on and off the floor for anyone of any age. 

The first step we take is to make sure someone can get on and off the floor as safely as possible. This reduces fear of falling and ending up on the floor and gives someone the confidence to know what to do in the event this happened. Then we bring more fun and creativity into the mix.

Getting on and off the floor takes your knees and hips through a larger joint range of motion than sitting in a chair, keeping you strong and healthy! Sitting on the floor also has core strengthening benefits. 

If you are not feeling confident about your ability to get on and off the floor or are afraid to try this on your own, stop by the clinic any Friday between 11am and 1pm for a floor transfer screening. 

For those who were unable to attend our Movement for Brain Health Workshop, we recorded a video recap of the material we presented. 

In this video we cover:

• The strong connection between mobility and brain health
• What your balance and walking might indicate about your brain health
• How chronic pain impacts the aging brain
• What mobility screenings can tell you about your brain health
• Different types of exercise and the mind benefits they have

And so much more!

We hope you enjoy and take something away that can positively impact your health! 

One of the biggest problems surrounding falls is a lack of understanding of what a fall actually is and when it should be reported. In this video we address one of our most commonly asked questions, "What exactly is a fall?"

Long story short, a fall is defined as ANY UNCONTROLLED DESCENT. There can be some confusion, because most people only consider it a fall if they fell all the way to the ground. But a fall includes catching yourself on a wall or furniture, falling onto a bed, or even plopping into a chair! 

There can be a negative stigma surrounding falls, and we hope this helps clear some of that up. Falls are nothing to be ashamed of and also nothing to be taken lightly. 

If you think you might be having falls, feel unsteady, or think you might be at risk of falls reach out to a trained healthcare provider for a screening. Just a few simple physical tests and measures can give you a lot of information about your overall health and future risk of falls. 

At Advanced Balance Clinic, a major part of our treatment philosophy focuses on body alignment to help get people moving better. When we refer to alignment, we mean how each body part is positioned relative to each other. For example, if you are standing and you look down where is your foot pointed relative to your hip? Is in angled out, angled in, or pointed straight forward? You might wonder why we spend so much time emphasizing these subtle variations throughout the body.

There are several components to this answer. The human body is complex. We might be focused on alignment, but also realize this is far from the whole picture. Take chronic pain for example. A focus on alignment might be a good start for some people, but pain is much more complex than meets the eye. More and more research demonstrates that chronic pain has nothing to do with what we call “posture” and is not even not well correlated with disease state. For example, someone can have terrible...