Having trouble keeping your balance?

Hi @dreamer38, thank you for the private message. I thought I would answer it in this discussion so that you could meet other members concerned about balance issues and falling.

Your question was you have had PMR since last Oct and been on Prednisone. You have fallen three times and have been told it’s the Prednisone. Nothing has broken but the bruises are awful and very painful! The grazings are nasty too. Do you have any helpful ideas?

I have no medical training but have had 2 occurrences of PMR and I stumble once in awhile. I also have osteopenia (thin bones) and have the same concern you do about bones breaking easily. I would first discuss it with your doctor to see if he has any suggestions or recommendations on supplements in case you have thin bones which makes falls worse for you. There are a lot of easy exercises you can do to help with the balance issues.

I'm tagging @becsbuddy @dorisena @helenr @lioness and @grandmar to see if they can offer some balance exercise suggestions for you.

I am fortunate to have strong bones and always wanted to have physical fitness but never worked on it until my forties. I drank lots of milk all my life and was determined to never get osteoporosis. I stretched my vertebrae to cure pinched nerves and a herniated disc and read books on sports. I learned to glide on one foot as a beginning ice skater in my forties and that is where I became proficient in balance. You must think of having a string in a straight line down your body and then you slowly shift the body in a straight line to the left or right, using the other foot close to the body as a rudder for the balance. I also stretched my leg up on the kitchen counter while waiting for supper to be ready in a spiral position like the fancy skaters do. I tightened my core muscles which is important for everything.
Skip sitting on the balls at the gym or standing on those flat, floppy discs because you will probably fall, as I did. You don't need much shift in the body to balance on one foot. Just a little bit, depending on how much extra fat you are carrying. Dorisena

I am fortunate to have strong bones and always wanted to have physical fitness but never worked on it until my forties. I drank lots of milk all my life and was determined to never get osteoporosis. I stretched my vertebrae to cure pinched nerves and a herniated disc and read books on sports. I learned to glide on one foot as a beginning ice skater in my forties and that is where I became proficient in balance. You must think of having a string in a straight line down your body and then you slowly shift the body in a straight line to the left or right, using the other foot close to the body as a rudder for the balance. I also stretched my leg up on the kitchen counter while waiting for supper to be ready in a spiral position like the fancy skaters do. I tightened my core muscles which is important for everything.
Skip sitting on the balls at the gym or standing on those flat, floppy discs because you will probably fall, as I did. You don't need much shift in the body to balance on one foot. Just a little bit, depending on how much extra fat you are carrying. Dorisena

@dreamer38 Good morning I have had balance and dizzy problems This was coming from my ears I saw a ENT Dr in a separate incident I have fallen because of balance For this I did exercises to strengthen my core first just pull your stomach in while working Stand on 1foot CT 10 then other I also do some yoga,chi qong,orTai Chi I too have Osteopenia so strengthen your core and do these exercersis stand at chair to do them 🙂

I am not experiencing simple balance issues: I get sudden, unprovoked, unexpected static sensations accompanied by rigidity. I have to suddenly force my upper body forward, all the way to placing my hands on the ground or around my ankles, to prevent falling straight over backwards like a statue. This happens when I am standing still, talking to someone.

@peggi, It must be disconcerting to have sudden and unexpected episodes like you describe. I'm not sure if this is helpful or not but it may shed some light on your symptoms. It's a chapter from a book - Episodic Neurologic Symptoms - Clinical Methods - NCBI

Chapter 51 - Episodic Neurologic Symptoms
-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK374/

I really appreciate your attentiveness to me, and your attempts to help me. However, no where in this extensive article does it mention SPS, diagnoses with an extremely elevated GAD antibody. I don’t believe any of the diseases or conditions listed are accompanied with that finding. I need to find something that corrects that inhibiting antibody.. and corrects my proprioception, specifically so that I am able to golf.

@peggi have you ever used Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/)? I did a search for "stiff person syndrome +elevated GAD antibody" and got quite a few hits. Here's the link to all of the search results.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2019&q=stiff+person+syndrome+%2Belevated+GAD+antibody&hl=en&as_sdt=1,24&as_vis=1