Balance is the key to perfection – be it diet or workout – and now, a person’s ability to balance the body could also be indicative of longevity. At a time when several people are relying on health check-ups to check for disease risk, experts say that a balance test should also be included in the routine to ascertain how healthy or how long one is likely to live.
For this, it is advised to remove the shoes and socks and place the front of the free foot on the back of the opposite lower leg while keeping the arms by the sides and gazing ahead. In the study, 1 in 5 people failed; additionally, 54 percent of 71 to 75-year-olds failed to strike a balance as opposed to 5 percent of 51 to 55-year-olds.
Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, experts tracked the participants for years and after a seven-year follow-up, they discovered that 7 percent of the participants had died. 17.5 percent of the people who failed the test were part of the group who had failed the test. With this, experts concluded that the inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds is associated with an 84 percent rise in early death risk.
To know more about this link, Times Now Digital connected with Dr. Mohit Kukreja, Consultant Arthroscopy, and Sports Medicine Specialist at Wockhardt Hospitals.
“This seems to be an observational study with a significant amount of arbitrary correlation and confounding factors involved. So we can’t be sure exactly what could be the reason for their inability to stand for less than 10 seconds. It could probably be poor health but could be some musculoskeletal or proprioceptive issues related to various systems of the body. So this statement cannot be accepted as a dictum and larger, prospective, and randomized studies need to prove this fact,” he said.
“Of course, we advise single leg balance exercises to improve steadiness in old age and to improve joint proprioception after sports-related ligament surgeries of the knee. This reduces the risk of a fall in the geriatric population and is a very important milestone to progress post-surgery knee patients to more aggressive rehabilitation exercises respectively,” Dr. Kukreja concluded.
Dr. Mohit Kukreja
Consultant Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Specialist
Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central
To book an appointment call: 022-61784400
Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/health/can-you-stand-on-one-leg-for-10-seconds-study-reveals-what-it-could-say-about-your-health-article-92408550
