DON’T LET A FALL SPOIL YOUR HIKE We—JoAnne, Charlie the dog, and I—spent the 4th of July weekend at Big Bear Lake, California. As part of the fun in the San Bernardino Mountains, we took daily hikes. We had magnificent views of the lake, saw faraway glaciers, and walked through vast stretches of pines and even a few redwoods. However, not paying enough attention to the condition of the trail on one of our descents, I took a fall. This resulted in several scrapes, lots of blood, but nothing life-threatening. JoAnne patched me up when we got back to our...
ORTHOSTATIC HYPOTENSION: STAND UP & FALL DOWN Today, I received my September issue of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter. One of the lead articles details orthostatic hypotension; where your blood pressure drops when you stand. The most surprising claim is that it affects nearly one in three older adults and is a common cause of falls. I’m sometimes a little slow when I stand but so far haven’t fallen. Still, I’d like to learn more on how to avoid that possibility—as perhaps do you. Here are excerpts from the online article by Heidi Godman, Do you fall down when...
FALL PREVENTION —TALES & TIPS I’ve had periodic falls with resulting sprains and broken bones ever since I was a kid. Mostly, these resulted from doing foolish things—like jumping off the roof of my garage when I was ten. But, now as I age, I seem to be taking more tumbles—at least once a year. I’ve fallen three different times during half-marathons, luckily I was able to finish each. I also fall now and again while doing everyday pastimes. Several years ago when I lived up at Lake Tahoe, I fell on an ice patch while fetching a newspaper in...