The New York Times is reporting breaking medical news: if you have a hard time with balance you might sprain your ankles lots, and visa versa. "People with bad ankles have bad balance."Improving your balance could reduce the risk of ankle injury and especially multiple ankle injuries, and sprainers often re-sprain quickly after the first injury. The way to improved balance is the old trick: stand on one leg for a while, as still as you can, then try it whit the other leg. Sounds like a perfect subway platform activity. Do you hear that, idiots! Do you know were your feet even are?
Why should balance training prevent ankle sprains? The reasons are both obvious and quite subtle. Until recently, clinicians thought that ankle sprains were primarily a matter of overstretched, traumatized ligaments. Tape or brace the joint, relieve pressure on the sore tissue, and a person should heal fully, they thought. But that approach ignored the role of the central nervous system, which is intimately tied in to every joint. “There are neural receptors in ligaments,” says Jay Hertel, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Virginia and an expert on the ankle. When you damage the ligament, “you damage the neuro-receptors as well. Your brain no longer receives reliable signals” from the ankle about how your ankle and foot are positioned in relation to the ground. Your proprioception — your sense of your body’s position in space — is impaired. You’re less stable and more prone to falling over and re-injuring yourself. --NYT
After reading this article, I sauntered over to my favorite website Texas A&M Engineering, and read about how they're helping people stop falling, especially if you're over 65. Apparently 1 in 3 elderlies will fall each year. And its not just a little inconvenience, as 1 in 4 of those who fall will die on the bathroom floor. Those engineers down in Texas are making an ankle brace with a chip inside that buzzes when it senses an ankle roll, so you fix yourself.
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