Over 40s at risk of serious, even fatal falls

Nearly 70 million elderly and middle-aged Americans are up to 12 times more likely to suffer a serious fall because they become dizzy and their balance is thrown off by some form of inner-ear dysfunction, according to findings by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
 
The startling research conclusion affects fully one-third of the adult American population – men and women – over 40 years of age.

What’s more, the experts said, more than 22 million in this group were unaware of their susceptibility to a serious fall, many saying they had no prior incidents of lost balance or sudden falls that would have set them to think about the dangers.
 
In the team’s research survey, these unaware people were three times more likely to suffer a potentially fatal fall than people with a healthy sense of balance, whereas people already experiencing symptoms of imbalance had a risk that was 12 times greater.
 
Accidental falls are among the leading causes of death in the elderly, killing an estimated 13,000 seniors each year in the United States and resulting in more than 1.5 million visits to hospital emergency rooms, experts say.
 
“Vestibular imbalances need to be taken seriously because falls can be fatal and injuries can be painful, lead to long hospital stays and result in significant loss in quality of life,” says Dr Lloyd Minor, director of head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

The survey findings included data that linked the chance of having a balance problem with advancing age and diabetes.

Researchers say this association is probably due to damage done by high blood sugar levels to the hair cells in the inner ear that facilitate balance control and to the long-term damage from diabetes to the inner ear’s small blood vessels.
 
“Our survey shows that balance testing needs to be part of basic primary care, and that all physicians need to be monitoring and screening their patients for vestibular dysfunction so that we can take preventive measures to guard against falling,” says Dr Minor.