Work Injuries, Your Balance, and How Your Cincinnati Chiropractor Can Help
At my Cincinnati Chiropractic Clinic I treat a lot of elders who are affected by balance problems. In fact, nine percent of adults, aged 65 and over, have episodes of dizziness, “wooziness,” and other balance-related challenges. Good balance is extremely important, of course, in helping elders to remain independent and to avoid falling down and incurring injuries that are frequently very serious or even fatal. But, you may be surprised to hear that falls produce a large portion of work-related injuries for individuals under 65 years of age, including those in their twenties and thirties. That’s right! Balance difficulties can occur at any age. In fact, those who work at “dangerous heights” like construction workers, roofers, oil platform employees, windows cleaners, or any other place where a ladder is involved are far more likely to sustain serious injury if their balance isn’t good.
The essential action of good balance is to aid us in managing and maintaining our body position, whether we are standing still or moving, and whether we are on the ground or high up on a platform. Good balance helps us to walk without faltering, arise from a sitting position without swaying, and to climb stairs without slipping. In other words, good balance is vital to our health and well-being.
What come as a surprise to you is that you could have a balance dysfunction without realizing how threatening it may be. Often times a person is able to “shake off” a dizzy feeling and it may not reoccur for a while. However when sudden dizziness comes about at a consequential time, it is too late to shake it off and a fall is often unpreventable.
When you have the sensation that you, individually, are spinning or that things around you are moving, it is called “vertigo.” Close to 40 percent of people in the U.S. will have at least one incidence of dizziness that is serious enough to seek out a health professional, such as your Chiropractor in Cincinnati. But, if you are involved in any of the activities listed above, it is an extremely good idea for you to see a chiropractor to have your balance checked prior to an acute episode of dizziness, rather than as a response to such an episode. Why? Because as a chiropractor, I can not only check your balance, and make adjustments if needed, but can assist you in maintaining good balance in the future. And, naturally, having good balance will likely save you from serious injury or worse.
Balance disorders at any age are serious. It is vital for you to be diagnosed and treated quickly if you feel as if you may have a possible balance disorder. To help to make your decision easier if you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, even if the experience is seldom or infrequent, you should discuss the symptom(s) with a chiropractor as soon as possible:
• Have you experienced a feeling of being “unsteady?”
• Has the room seemed to spin around you?
• Has there ever a time when you felt as if you were moving when you knew you were standing still?
• Have you lost your balance and/or fallen down?
• Have you ever felt as if you were falling?
• Has your vision ever become “blurred?”
• Have you ever felt disoriented, or lost a sense of time, place or identity?
It is important for you to remember that balance problems are not specific to a particular age group. Our falling down is an ever-present possibility from the time we learn to walk until we take our final step All the more reason to have your balance checked if you work in a job that makes your falling down a “critical” issue. Don’t wait until it’s too late! If you’re in the Cincinnati area, give me a call. I can help!