Tag Archives: falling

Falls and Brain Injury

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Breaking a hip isn’t the only thing to fear when an older adult has an unintentional fall. Brain injury can cause long-term problems, affect how a person functions, and even impact emotional well-being! Some unpleasant statistics from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control study: Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) from a fall resulted in nearly 8,000 deaths in seniors and more than 50,000 hospitalizations in 2005. The death and hospitalization rates for TBI increase as age increases. The average hospital stay for an older adult with a fall-related TBI is four days. The average cost of a hospital stay for an … Continue reading →

Prevent Falls with Yoga

Research from Temple University’s Gait Study Center suggests that practicing a specific type of yoga can help prevent falls in women over the age of sixty-five. The Temple University study looked at participants in an Iyengar yoga program specifically designed for senior citizens who had little or no previous yoga experience. Why Iyengar yoga? The technique uses props like belts and blocks to help participants master poses gradually. Participants often feel more confident and comfortable working with the props. The class covered the most basic moves and techniques with an emphasis on proper breathing, stances, and poses. After nine weeks … Continue reading →

Falls Are a Leading Cause of Death in the Elderly

For men and women over the age of 65, the leading cause of injury-related death is falls. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the death rate attributable to falls in the elderly rose by more than 55% from 1993 through 2003. The problem is, not only have the death rates due to falls grown, they have surpassed the injury rates related to falls. Part of the problem is related to the longevity of modern life. More and more often, we are living to an age when our bodies are frailty can mean a fall is … Continue reading →

High Rise Syndrome

High-rise syndrome is a danger to domestic cats — especially during the warmer weather. The name refers to any number of injuries that can result from a fall from a high window. You may have heard stories of cats falling several stories and living to tell the tale… but many more fall and do not survive the impact or resulting injuries. Most of these accidents can be prevented. Make sure that any window you open has a screen. To be cat-proof, the screen must fit securely in the window frame and be strong enough to withstand at least a ten … Continue reading →

Your Baby & Head Trauma

Head trauma is terrifying no matter how old your baby is and there are many opportunities for your baby to receive such head injury, so the more prepared you are – the more proactive you can be to help reduce the opportunities for a head trauma to occur. For example, when my daughter was just 10 weeks old, she rolled off a bed. I didn’t think she could squirm that far and she was right in the center of a queen sized bed and I’d stepped into the restroom. I wasn’t gone two minutes. When I came back, she was … Continue reading →

Safety in Diaper Changes

A recently published study indicated that about 2,000 babies end up in an emergency room every year after falling while having their diaper changed. Moms and dads know how wiggly even their youngest ones can be during a diaper change. Their legs wiggle and jerk, their bodies rock from side to side and before they are only a few months old, they are rolling. Diaper changing is a time ripe for accidents and it’s important to take precautions when it comes to changing their diapers. If you use a changing table, make sure it has raised sides. If the table … Continue reading →