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Aging News & Information
Senior Citizens Having Problems with Balance,
Walking Can Blame Their Brain
People with severe white matter changes were twice
as likely to score poorly on the walking and balance tests
 March 17, 2008 - New research shows how well people
get around and keep their balance in old age is linked to the severity
of changes happening in their brains. White matter changes, also called
leukoaraiosis, are frequently seen in older people and differ in
severity.
The study found people with severe white matter
changes were twice as likely to score poorly on the walking and balance
tests as those people with mild white matter changes. The study also
found people with severe changes were twice as likely as the mild group
to have a history of falls. The moderate group was one-and-a-half times
as likely as the mild group to have a history of falls.
The three-year study called LADIS (Leukoaraiosis
and Disability), coordinated by the Department of Neurological and
Psychiatric Sciences of the University of Florence, involved 639 men and
women between the ages of 65 and 84 who underwent brain scans and
walking and balance tests. Of the group, 284 had mild age-related white
matter changes, 197 moderate changes, and 158 severe changes.
“Walking difficulties and falls are major symptoms
of people with white matter changes and a significant cause of illness
and death in the elderly,” said study author Hansjoerg Baezner, MD, PhD,
with the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim, Germany. “Exercise may
have the potential to reduce the risk of these problems since exercise
is associated with improved walking and balance. We’ll be testing
whether exercise has such a protective effect in our long-term study of
this group.”
“Mobility is one of the key determinants of
independent aging,” said Baezner. “Limitations in mobility often lead to
hospitalization and nursing home placement. This will become a major
problem for our social and economic systems in the upcoming decades.”
In addition, Baezner says monitoring white matter
changes may be useful in the early detection of walking problems, which
have been linked to other health problems. “Recently, gait abnormalities
have been shown to predict non-Alzheimer’s disease dementia, so
recognition, early diagnosis and treatment of this disabling condition
may be possible through early detection of walking and balance
problems.”
Baezner says researchers do not fully understand
why some people’s white matter changes are worse than others or what
causes the changes, however, a clear link to insufficiently treated high
blood pressure has been shown.
The study was supported by grants from the European
Union and is published in the March 18, 2008, issue of Neurology, the
medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The American Academy of Neurology recently issued a
new guideline on the risk of falls. For more information on this new
guideline, visit www.aan.com.
The American Academy of Neurology, an association
of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is
dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A
neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing,
treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as
stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple
sclerosis.
For more information about the American Academy of
Neurology, visit
http://www.aan.com.
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