Balance & Gait Problems: A Real Puzzler

Thanks for this link, Lori. It further confirms my belief in the anti-inflammatory effects of exercise. I derived additional proof from my recent experience with a local orthopedic doctor. I've sported a right knee prosthetic for going on two decades. When two years ago my left knee began to ache, I thought, "Uh oh, time for a second prosthetic." But no, I've managed to moderate and practically eliminate the ache through regular exercise. My doctor tells me he believes I've succeeded in not needing another total knee replacement thanks to consistent exercise. So, you see, I'm a great believer in exercising through pain, at least through reasonable pain.

Ray

Thanks for the encouragement Ray. Last week my ortho told me to keep gardening (a shared .passion) and I would never need my knees replaced. I am beginning to believe that recliners.and reclining sofas should be.banished!
Sue

I’m similar physically. I have a right knee prosthetic, for a long time, still in good shape and a gait and balance problem. I’m fine from the waist up.
My gait and balance problem is related to my peripheral neuropathy!
How come that hasn’t been mentioned as a possible cause? I think it may be the most causal and common reason for gait and balance problems

Good for you, Sue! My partner too is an avid gardener, and she too has considerable arthritis. We both find that at day's end if we've not been reasonably active we've both got day's-end arthritis pain. Activity spares us the pain. I keep a copy of choreographer Twyla Tharp's inspiring book Keep It Moving on my kitchen counter, where I can't help but see it 1,000 times each day, purely for git-up-'n'-go motivation.

That's funny - my inspiration has been my daughters' Oriental dance teacher Cassandra Shore, who is my age and has kept on performing through many years of arthritis and joint replacements. She is retiring in June after running her school for 43 years, and performing even longer. She even has one dance troupe that limits participation to those 40 and older...
Sue

I've done some chasing down in this area. One thing I found was pernicious (aka SNEAKY) anemia (inability to assimilate B12 through the digestive system, shown by a blood test that indicates the lack of the thing needed to enable one to digest B12 (there's a name for it, which I just remembered is Intrinsic Factor. Pernicious Anemia can affect balance and eventually cause neuropathy, which you surely don't want, and which I haven't succeeded in getting rid of since it developed. It took my mother's doctor 10 years to realize that's what he was dealing with and my docs and I took about 6 years, even though I knew I had a family history of it. People over some age are more susceptible also and I hit that age about the time I started getting suspicious.

In response to cantab: I've had Meniere's most of my life, although it only became a serious problem in my mid-40s, after I quit taking birth control pills (hormones)...my Meniere's is triggered by low hormone levels. After four horrible years, I got on a good hormone replacement program and then learned to do vestibular rehab, so have been able to live a more active life than most people. Due to concerns about hormones and age, I reduced the amount of hormones gradually...and went bilateral three years ago. Once I found a doc willing to prescribe adequate hormones, I went back for a "checkup" on VRT (vestibular rehab) and learned that age has reduced the ability of my lower leg nerves to function properly. The fix is to concentrate even harder on what my feet tell me (proprioception, the body's third balance system). Now, I walk to our mailbox a quarter mile along our gravel one-lane road with my eyes closed six days a week, thinking about what my feet feel. As a result, at 80 I still do very difficult instream data collection as a volunteer for our state fisheries agency. If I slack off and don't do some form of VRT every day, I quickly lose my ability to pretend I'm a norm!
Another simple exercise is to make a step about 6" high, large enough for both feet. Stand on it, eyes open, and step down with one foot and then back up six times. Repeat with eyes closed, then do eyes open and closed six times each with the opposite foot. At the start, have the step next to a counter, table, or dresser in case you lose your balance.
You can buy a nubbly air-filled thing about six inches high, but, for me, the gravel road is right there and part of what I need to do most days. Lots of VRT can be incorporated into daily life, without being a totally separate exercise thing.

Three cheers for the arts for keeping us young! A major frustration for me––perhaps my greatest––is having to give up stage work, at least temporarily. (I hope it's only "temporary"!) In my last show, I was so distracted by my unreliable balance that I knew I wasn't doing my best work. When the show closed, I told my colleagues that I would stay off-stage until I could recover at least some decent balance. Will I succeed at that? I'm hoping!

You will !!!