Do you have trouble keeping your balance? It could be a sign of something far more serious than an excessive intake at the summer party. Being unstable can indicate how good or bad your health is, researchers explain. If your balance does not allow you to stand on one leg for more than ten seconds, your chances of dying within the next ten years should be greater than in others. – Balance is a complicated activity with interaction between brain, nervous system and muscles. Poor balance can be an indication of a decline in the level of function in one or more of these. It can be due to underlying disease or general aging, says Bjørn Heine Strand to news. He is a senior researcher at the National Institute of Public Health. The new study is a collaboration across several countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil and Finland. And even if the new research is only based on observation, the findings should still be startling. One in five failed For 12 years, the researchers behind the new study have investigated the relationship between balance and mortality. A total of 1702 people aged 51–75 were followed from 2008 to 2020. At the start of this project, all participants were asked to stand on one leg for ten seconds. Without any kind of support. To make the test as fair as possible, everyone was asked to stand in the same way. They had to place the front of the free foot on the back of the opposite leg, keeping their arms along the side and looking straight ahead. They got three tries each. One in five failed. Over the next decade, 123 of the participants died of various causes. After taking into account age, gender and underlying conditions, the inability to stand on one leg for ten seconds was associated with an 84 percent increased risk of death, regardless of the cause. – Being able to stand on one leg is important for several reasons. Moving in and out of a car, going up the stairs and so on. Not having this ability, or being afraid to perform such movements, is probably related to loss of autonomy. This is how the snowball starts to roll, says Claudio Gil Araujo. He has led the study. A warning warning The researchers believe that the inability to stand on one leg for more than ten seconds can be a warning warning – especially for people over 60 years of age. Then the chance of dying over the next ten years should be doubled. Bjørn Heine Strand at FHI says the results from this research are in good agreement with other, similar studies. The same trend has also been seen in Norway. The Tromsø survey from 2015–16 examined the balance of 7,700 people. All participants were over 40 years of age. Here, most people managed to balance on one leg with open eyes for 30 seconds until they reached the age of 65 years. After that, the balance period became significantly shorter. – The strong association with mortality indicates that these function tests are good markers for biological age, says Strand. Bjørn Heine Strand is a senior researcher at FHI. He is not part of the research mentioned, but has himself been involved in studying balance and mortality among Norwegians. Photo: National Institute of Public Health A natural part of the health check The results should be so startling that researcher Claudio Gil Araujo believes that a balance test should be included in routine health checks for older people. In contrast to aerobic fitness, muscle strength and flexibility, balance tends to be well maintained later in life. After the age of 60, it should decrease fairly quickly, he explains. In general, those who failed the test had poorer health: obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. – If you can not stand on one leg for ten seconds, and are worried because of this, you should perhaps reflect on your own health . This is what Dr. Naveed Sattar tells CNN. He is a professor at the University of Glasgow. – An alternative may be that these people make positive lifestyle changes, such as gaining more weight or losing weight, if needed. It can also be smart to see a doctor, says the professor. Standing on one leg is perhaps more complicated than you thought. It is an intricate interaction between the brain, the nervous system and our muscles. Photo: Bjørn Steinar Gundersen Limitations The researchers behind the study point out that there are weaknesses in the research. All participants were, among others, white Brazilians, and they therefore do not know for sure whether the results can be transferred to other ethnic groups and nations. The participants’ physical shape, diet or the medication they used were also not taken into account. Nevertheless, researchers are fairly certain that this has something to do with it, as previous studies have also suggested much of the same.
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