Each year, American consumers shell out tens of thousands of dollars on walking shoes and orthotics in an effort to keep their foot balance in check. What many individuals fail to realize, however, is that maintaining proper balance is dependent on a number of factors that goes beyond the kind of shoes you slip on.
Balance plays a crucial role in your body’s motor function. With each step, your body uses more than 600 of its muscles and 200 of its bones just to propel your feet to move. While there are those who are naturally gifted with a balanced gait, a good number of us are suffering from poor balance.
What is Poor Balance?
Maintaining the right balance requires the collaboration of your muscles, bones, and joints along with your eyes to help focus your body’s orientation. When one or more of these factors are compromised, your balance suffers. When this happens, you become more susceptible to falls and injuries that can lead to a ligament being torn, muscles strains, and fractures that can impair your range of movement and despair your quality of life.
What Causes Poor Balance?
It can be triggered by a number of different factors that include medical disorders, malnutrition, hyperventilation, anxiety disorders, low or high blood pressure and medication side effects. Dizziness from vertigo, for instance, can adversely affect your balance.
What are the Symptoms of Poor Balance?
When balance is impaired, a person can experience a condition known as “room spinning”, to which anyone who has ever been drunk can relate to. When this happens, you lose your sense of direction prompting you to stagger with each step. Here are a few of the most common signs of imbalance problems:
- Vertigo/ dizziness
- Lightheadedness/ Disorientation
- Blurred Vision
- Nausea
- Faintness
- Vomiting
- Sudden rise or fall in heart and blood pressure rates
How to Prevent Poor Balance?
To keep the body properly focused and oriented, one needs to constantly watch their diet and nutrition habits as certain vitamin deficiencies can trigger this condition. Regular consultations with a physician can also help address any health concerns that can potentially cause balance problems.
How to Treat Poor Balance?
Keeping to a regular exercise and fitness regimen can do well to keep your balance intact. Walking, running or getting into sports can help sharpen your mental and physical faculties to help restore your body’s sense of equilibrium.
Ideal Feet Can Help!
Restoring balance to the body starts with keeping the feet in their ideal position. Ideal Feet arch supports are designed to help the bones and joints of the feet find their ideal position while balancing you on the four arches of each foot. When the feet are properly aligned they function the way they were designed so the body can heal itself and restore balance from ground up.